Greater London Authority Bill

It is important that the Mayor should have regard to the views of London Councils-I wish that that body was still called the ALG, because that would have made this debate a great deal easier. The Mayor should have particular regard to the views of each London council. I distinguish them from London Councils, which cannot always represent all views and, indeed, is likely on some occasions to represent a majority view. What is important is the breadth of the consultation and what is meant in this clause by "have regard to" views. I do not know whether the Minister can assist me; I am not sure what more is meant by "have regard to" than is inherent in good consultation. However, that is not the central point of this amendment. Individual borough councils are consulted on strategies-or should be-under the original Act. The Section 42 list includes "each London borough council". I recall a debate in 1998 or 1999 about whether the Association of London Government, as it then called itself, should be included separately in that list-the converse, perhaps, of this debate. So the boroughs are consulted. Most important are the provisions in the new section headed "Consultation: supplementary provision". Those provisions are not the whole of it, by any means; they merely supplement Section 42. Subsections (2), (4), (5) and (6) spell out what the Mayor has to do in responding to comments made through a consultation process. He has to give reasons why comments are accepted or rejected, or, presumably-although it does not say so-why they are partly accepted or rejected. I see that feedback as important part of the process. I do not suppose that London Councils, the organisation, would sit back during this period, but I think that the individual boroughs have a particular status in that part of the forest. This clause, in particular, would strengthen the role of the Assembly and its scrutiny powers by requiring the Mayor to spell out precisely why he does or does not accept comments made by the Assembly in contributing to the making of a strategy.