Greater London Authority Bill

I might say that the robust Members on the Minister’s side have disappeared because they knew they would not be able to resist my arguments, but that is not very likely. The Minister’s argument—that this is to assist the Assembly to spread its wings, concentrate on scrutiny and so on—is very seductive, but I am not actually seduced by it. If the Assembly needed the space it would have said so, rather than expressing its concerns, as it did, over these arrangements. There are a number of points where I am referring to the total number of posts, while the Minister is referring to individual appointments. The number of staff is a political matter. The GLA is not the same as other bodies, for reasons we debated earlier today, so it was a deliberate check that was designed. The head of paid service, as other officers do, has the unenviable task of having to support and sometimes act as a go-between between the Mayor and the Assembly, and he has a responsibility facing both ways. He has to achieve a balance in the work he does. As on other occasions, I am making absolutely no comment about the current post-holder, who, much as many of us might wish to see him there for a long time, will not be there for ever. The Minister seems to have said, and she might be able to confirm this now, that the new subsection (2), which she quotes in Clause 7(1), is about the overall establishment—the overall number of posts—and not just about individual appointments. I think I see nods coming from that direction.