SUBSTITUTE CALCULATIONS UNDER SECTION 49 OF THE 1992 ACT (Hansard, 8 November 1999)

§ Mr. Raynsford
I beg to move, That this House agrees with the Lords in the said amendment.

§ Mr. Deputy Speaker
With this it will be convenient to discuss Lords amendment No. 152.

§ Mr. Raynsford
The amendment, and the associated amendment, No. 152, make minor clarifications to the mayor's powers and duties in relation to the GLA's single finance system.
Amendment No. 140 eliminates an unintended effect of the GLA's power to make substitute calculations. It ensures that the mayor and Assembly cannot re-allocate money from one GLA body to another during the financial year, except to ensure that the Metropolitan Police Authority budget is adequate, following a direction from the Secretary of State, or in the event of an emergency or disaster. The mayor and Assembly will thus, as had always been our intention, be able to use the power to make substitute calculations only to cut both the consolidated and component budgets. For example, a newly elected mayor may want to do that.
Amendment No. 152 amends a possible misunderstanding in respect of clause 105 as it left the House—namely, that the mayor is required to state for each functional body a minimum amount of capital grant he will pay to that body. That was not the intended effect. It was intended to leave the mayor free to decide what capital grant he makes to the functional bodies and to require him to specify an amount only when he decides to pay a body no less than a certain amount. The mayor will, of course, be able to specify in section B of the capital spending plan an amount of nil as the minimum amount of capital grant he will pay to a functional body. He is more likely simply to specify no amount if he has not reached a decision on a minimum amount. The clause as amended will raise no doubts about his ability to do that.