Labour agrees “pact” with Lib Dems and Greens to scrutinise Boris Johnson

Following last week’s London Assembly and Mayoral elections, Labour, Lib Dem and Green assembly members have agreed a “pact” to work together and scrutinise Boris Johnson as London Mayor. Announcing the deal, Labour’s leader in the London Assembly Len Duvall said:

“Today the London Assembly will agree that the Labour group will chair the majority of the scrutiny committees, working in close partnership with the Liberal Democrats and Greens. By working together on a cross-party basis we will better hold this Conservative Mayor to account.”

You can read the agreement in full below:

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Labour, Green and Liberal Democrat Agreement

Following discussions, this is the agreement proposed between Labour, Liberal Democrat and Green Groups to share power in the operation of the Assembly.  It includes a number of positions for the Conservative Group.

Approach

The Assembly as a whole needs to do an effective job which means including all party groups in operational arrangements while also ensuring the Mayor is fully held to account with the non-mayoral parties taking the lead.  It is important the performance of the Mayor and all the GLA’s Functional Bodies, as well as other organisations that run public services inLondon, are scrutinised in depth and held to account.  We are open to more constructive working between the Assembly and the Mayor over the four year term.

This agreement sets out in writing organisational matters and it will be published in full.  The agreement lasts for four years but will be subject to review after two years.  That review will include a look at the number of committee places and the Chair and Deputy Chair positions of each committee and the Assembly.  Any changes to create or abolish a committee or vary the positions of Chair and Deputy Chair of the Assembly or its Committees will only be made with full agreement of all the signatories.

The Leaders of the Labour, Green and Liberal Democrat groups will meet monthly to review the progress of this agreement and any issues around it.

Assembly

Labour will Chair the Assembly in the first, third and fourth years.  There will be a Green Chair in the second year.  There will be a Green Deputy Chair in the first year and a Labour Deputy Chair in the second year.  We hope that the Conservative Group will nominate a Deputy Chair for the final two years.

All chairing will be carried out effectively and in a non-partisan manner.

Committees

Following discussions between the Leaders of all four parties represented on the London Assembly (as at May 8th 2012) it was agreed that the following committees would be created at the Annual General Meeting to be held on May 11th 2012:

• GLA Oversight Committee
• Budget & Performance Committee
• Transport Committee
• Police & Crime Committee
• Economy Committee
• Housing & Regeneration Committee
• Planning Committee
• Health & Environment Committee
• Audit Committee
• Standards Committee (up until the existing standards regime is abolished in June 2012 as per the Localism Act 2011)

The GLA Oversight Committee will amend any Terms of Reference to help facilitate the smooth operation of the committee structure.  This structure will be reviewed after two years.

Chairs and Deputy Chairs will be confirmed at each AGM and shared as follows:

GLA oversight Committee

Chair – Labour for 4 years

Deputy Chair – Chair of the Assembly

Budget & Performance Committee

Chair – Labour for 4 years

Deputy Chair – Liberal Democrat for 4 years

Transport Committee

Chair – Liberal Democrat years 1 and 3, Labour years 2 and 4

Deputy Chair – Labour years 1 and 3, Liberal Democrat years 2 and 4

Police & Crime Committee

Chair – Labour for 4 years

2 Deputy Chairs – Liberal Democrat and Green for 4 years

Economy Committee

Chair – Labour years 1 and 4, Liberal Democrat year 2, Green year 3
Deputy Chair – Liberal Democrat year 1, Labour years 2 and 3, Green year 4

Housing & Regeneration Committee

Chair – Labour years 1 and 4, Green years 2 and 3

Deputy Chair – Green years 1 and 4, Labour years 2 and 3

Planning Committee

Chair – Labour for 4 years
Deputy Chair – Conservatives for 4 years

Health & Environment Committee

Chair – Labour years 1 and 2, Liberal Democrat year 3, Green year 4
Deputy Chair – Green year 1, Liberal Democrat year 2, Labour years 3 and 4

Audit Committee

Chair – Labour for 4 years

Deputy Chair – Conservatives for 4 years

Standards Committee

Chair – Independent member to be agreed at first meeting

Deputy Chair – Conservatives

Confirmation Hearing Committee

Chair to be decided at each meeting of the committee

Resources

The Labour group recognises the need to adequately support small groups on the London Assembly.  Therefore the Labour group will support resources being allocated to the smaller groups that provide adequate and appropriate resources to support Group management and overheads.

Len Duvall, Labour Group

Jenny Jones, Green Group

Caroline Pidgeon, Liberal Democrat Group

May 11th 2012