London Bodies (Transfers) (Hansard, 25 May 2000)

§ Mr. Hill

The transfers of existing bodies takes place on four main dates. As I announced in response to a question from my hon. Friend the Member for Croydon, Central (Mr. Davies) on 1 April 2000,Official Report, columns 420–21W, the London Ecology Committee, London Planning Advisory Committee and London Research Centre were abolished, and their staff, assets and liabilities were temporarily transferred to the Secretary of State.

On 8 May these staff, assets and liabilities (other than those relating to a small number of London Research Centre staff who will transfer later to Transport for London) transferred to the Greater London Authority (GLA), along with a small number of planning staff from the Government Office for London, and the GLA Transition Team and staff newly recruited for the GLA.

Transfers to Transport for London (TfL) and the London Development Agency (LDA), and to the London Transport Users Committee (LTUC), will take place on 3 July. On that date the following will transfer to TfL:

London Regional Transport, excluding London Underground Ltd. and some residual parts of LRT;
the Traffic Control Systems Unit;
the staff, assets and liabilities of the Traffic Director for London;
the Docklands Light Railway;
the part of the Highways Agency dealing with London roads;
certain roads from London boroughs and the City of London;
certain roads in Docklands from the Commission for the New Towns;
the Public Carriage Office;
a small number of staff from the Government Office for London, and from the centre of the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions.

On the same date the following will transfer to the LDA:

the London region staff of English Partnerships, and associated assets and liabilities;
some staff from the Government Office for London, together with staff newly recruited for the LDA.

On the same date the staff, assets and liabilities of the London Regional Passengers Committee will transfer to LTUC, which will report to the Assembly of the GLA.

Most of the above transfers will be achieved through transfer schemes prepared under powers in section 409 of the GLA Act. In preparing their transfer schemes, predecessor bodies are identifying which of their property, rights and liabilities, such as buildings, contracts, staff or other assets, will transfer to the GLA's functional bodies and which will remain with the predecessor body itself or be transferred elsewhere. Among other things, they will need to consider whether existing contracts can transfer in their existing form or whether changes will be needed to meet the needs of the functional bodies.

In addition, those predecessor bodies, such as the Highways Agency, which are designated as Public Records bodies under the Public Records Act 1958 will need to review those records which are intended to transfer to the functional bodies to see whether particular records are worthy of preservation in the national archive. Predecessor bodies will also need to identify whether all of their existing records are appropriate for transfer to the functional bodies, on the basis that all relevant records should transfer, unless 577W they identify any papers, such as advice to Ministers of the present and previous administrations, which would be inappropriate for transfer. We expect that each predecessor body will identify very few, if any, papers which are unsuitable for transfer. In conducting this exercise they will need to ensure that they take full account of existing and proposed freedom of information legislation and the openness regime under which the GLA and functional bodies will operate.

Budgets for the GLA, TfL and LDA are as set out on 17 February 2000, Official Report, column 637W.

To permit the GlA, TfL and LDA to start functioning immediately on their respective start dates, orders to facilitate the transition have been made under powers in sections 405 and 406 of the GLA Act. These enable the new organisations to make arrangements for their financial operations and, where necessary, to prepare standing orders for their initial meetings. In addition temporary appointments of certain statutory office holders in the GLA, TfL and LDA have been made by the Secretary of State using powers in section 407 of the GLA Act.

To remove any doubts about the application of the Transfer of Undertaking (Protection of Employment) Regulations 1981 to transfers of staff to the new organisations, an order has been made applying the 1981 Regulations to all transfers of staff by means of transfer schemes or orders under the GLA Act powers. A further order added the new organisations to the list of bodies eligible to be members of the Local Government Pension Scheme.