Greater London Authority Bill

My noble friend has asked me to remind the Committee of the number of times we voted on the terms ““chair”” and ““chairman”” during the passage of the original Bill. That was not in the context of the functional bodies, but of the chair or chairman of the Assembly. I agree with the noble Lord to this extent: in practice, the most sensible and courteous approach is to allow the office holder to indicate their preferred term of reference. The one that I would always rule out for myself is ““Madam Chairperson””.