Appendix 3 London Assembly (Mayor’s Question Time) 18 June 2008 Transcript – Question and Answer Session 1208/2008 - S67 Appointments John Biggs Have you made all your S67 appointments yet and clarified their roles? Boris Johnson (Mayor of London): The question is about the Section 67 appointments [appointments made under Section 67 of the Greater London Authority Act 1999 (as amended)]; whether I am going to make any more? Jennette Arnold (Chair): Have you made all of them and clarified their roles? Boris Johnson (Mayor of London): No, the answer is I have not finished making my appointments. The job descriptions of the appointments I have made are on the website and the remainder will be there shortly. We are going to be making some further appointments in due course. John Biggs (AM): Can I first of all congratulate you on your appointment of Neale Coleman as a Section 67 officer. He will, I am sure, give you continuing excellent advice on the Olympics, as he did to your predecessor. A few simple questions: The first question is about your announcement in your manifesto in your campaign that the environment was a prime priority for you and yet you have not yet appointed an environmental adviser. Is there a reason for this? Was it again a mismatch between the rhetoric and the reality of the Mayoralty. Boris Johnson (Mayor of London): Several points: there are a great many very talented people working on the environment in this building and it has been a joy to meet them and to talk to them and I think that - John Biggs (AM): OK. Name some! Boris Johnson (Mayor of London): There are so many it would be invidious to name them! It seems to me that you want to get me either way; you criticise the new administration for making a flurry of appointments in haste and try to criticise us for not being exactly in conformity with the Widdicombe Rules or whatever it happens to be - Len Duvall (AM): Within the law. Boris Johnson (Mayor of London): When we take our time, when we decide that we are going to consult and when we decide that we are going to canvas the widest possible opinion about who should be fulfilling these important posts, you cry haste and you demand personnel and you demand people to be produced. We are going to recruit - John Biggs (AM): This is eating into our time. 1 Boris Johnson (Mayor of London): Can you just let me finish, John. We are going to recruit some excellent people to fill the remaining posts. I would have thought that it should be a matter for congratulation that the new administration has been able to get along so far without spending the money I am entitled to spend on new personnel. John Biggs (AM): Although of course in the meantime you have expended potentially £500,000 on consultants to fill the gaps that the absence of those people - Boris Johnson (Mayor of London): I like that the word ‘potentially’ that crept into your sentence there. John Biggs (AM): It is a very useful word. Boris Johnson (Mayor of London): ‘Potentially’ was a very useful word there in that sentence! Potentially was covering a multitude of sins in that sentence, John. John Biggs (AM): You have appointed people as consultants whose annual costs would be £500,000 at least. Can I move on then. Boris Johnson (Mayor of London): I do not think you are in a position to analyse the cost. John Biggs (AM): If we summarise your answer, which was essentially that you did not answer the question, you may get round to appointing an environmental adviser - which was your number one priority - some time between now and Christmas I guess. Boris Johnson (Mayor of London): Sorry, my number one priority -- John Biggs (AM): Munira Mirza is your adviser I believe on cultural issues. Boris Johnson (Mayor of London): Yes. John Biggs (AM): Is it a coincidence that she is I think the only woman appointed to your team and she is on the lowest salary? Or is that an unfair question? Boris Johnson (Mayor of London): I think that is to trivialise the process of appointments and I think Munira is going to do a fantastic job for us on culture and arts. John Biggs (AM): Are you going to be appointing an adviser on equalities issues? Boris Johnson (Mayor of London): I do not propose to go into the detail of the further appointments I am going to make. John Biggs (AM): OK. Could you advise us whether Mr Lewis has yet taken up his appointment and signed a contract with the Authority? Boris Johnson (Mayor of London): As far as I know Ray [Lewis] is Deputy Mayor for Youth. John Biggs (AM): Let us move on to some of the more interesting questions then. I am sure you would agree with me that a Mayoral adviser would probably have a desk, an office, a PA, an email account, would speak on your behalf at conferences, would write articles as your adviser and may even be designated Deputy Mayor. Where is this leading? There is such a person who is exercising all of those functions; they write articles in the newspapers - The Sunday Times last weekend: Sir Simon Milton. He was intended to be an adviser. Just for the record, for this meeting, I know you 2 have been talking to Len Duvall about this, there is concern that the legality of his position needs to be clarified in the interests of good public administration and that needs to be done pretty sharpish. I will leave that question at that but I shall move on to another. You are welcome to respond if you like. Are you going to make sure that any legal doubts about his position are clarified both in his interest and those of the Authority? Boris Johnson (Mayor of London): You are asking a question about Sir Simon Milton’s legal status and whether or not he is entitled to act as an informal adviser under the Widdicombe Rules? Is that it? John Biggs (AM): I dispute the word ‘informal’, but yes. Boris Johnson (Mayor of London): The answer is that we have watertight counsel opinion which Len [Duvall] has seen - and he is nodding there - which - John Biggs (AM): I do not think he is nodding in the direction you would like him to nod! Boris Johnson (Mayor of London): I will read it to you. This is advice from Michael Supperstone QC. For the benefit of the world who is watching this, this is an argument about whether or not I am entitled to have a distinguished public servant, Sir Simon Milton, acting as my unpaid, informal adviser on matters of planning without breaching the Widdicombe Rules which were designed to stop Labour Councillors hiring each other and doing all sorts of things back in the 1980s, but never mind that now! The key distinction is that Sir Simon is not being paid and therefore he is not caught by the Widdicombe Rules. This is the important point and, indeed, this is borne out by advice from Michael Supperstone QC, who says at the conclusion of his advice to us on this matter: “Another option that was considered was for there to be no contractual relations between Sir Simon and the GLA but for him to offer informal advice and not to receive payment for it. In my view Section 69 would not apply in these circumstances. He would be a paid member of staff of the Greater London Authority and he would not be employed under the direction of a joint committee whose membership included those referred to in Section 69 2(A)(A)”. John Biggs (AM): I am not a QC but I have read my Ladybird Book of the Law! My concern is that the reality is that he is a guiding hand if you like behind your administration and that in all reality he is acting as an adviser. It is simply a device to try to get around the law and it is quite embarrassing and quite unbecoming of an administration committed to openness”. Can I move on to the next question which is about - Boris Johnson (Mayor of London): I do not want to be unnecessarily pernickety about this; we made it absolutely clear that this is not in breach of the law or the Widdicombe Rules, a point that having contested you now appear to accept. John Biggs (AM): We have made it absolutely clear that we think that it may well - Boris Johnson (Mayor of London): You now appear to accept that it is in fact in conformity with the law. John Biggs (AM): No. We are not accepting that at all. We are seeking further clarification. 3 Shall I move on to maybe more fruitful ground? You have appointed a whole number of Deputy Mayors, as I think we discussed at the previous meeting; five of them so far and counting. There may be more. You did not totally rule out the possibility of there being additional Mayors as well! The question is, is there any power that you would not delegate? Perhaps to focus your thinking, there is an article in the Financial Times today which crystallizes my thinking on this, which is there is a risk that you have delegate so much that there is almost a sort of empty vessel here with everything going on around you. Boris Johnson (Mayor of London): I think it very important for the efficient running of this place that we have high powered people who are able to get on with their jobs with maximum despatch and that is what I am going to encourage.