Roger Evans (Chairman)
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Appendix 2 London Assembly (Plenary) – 5 March 2008 Transcript of Question and Answer Session with Simon Fletcher (Chief of Staff, GLA) and John Ross (Director, Economic and Business Policy, GLA) Sally Hamwee (Chair): We now move to the main item on today’s agenda: the question and answer session regarding the funding of organisations and GLA Group corporate governance, the Corporate Governance Review. Can I start by asking Simon Fletcher, as Chief of the Mayor’s Staff, to what extent you are responsible in your role as Chief of Staff for regulating and supervising the conduct of the Mayoral Advisers? Simon Fletcher (Chief of Staff, GLA): I would say my responsibility is to ensure that the Mayor’s advisers and directors are providing the Mayor with the best possible advice and do so in a timely fashion. That is a role of regulation, if you want to call it that, because it involves making sure that the most important issues facing the city are properly discussed and that the appropriate action is taken to deliver the Mayor’s priorities. The Mayor’s directors are people who directly report to me. Sally Hamwee (Chair): The question was about conduct but Mike Tuffrey has already caught my eye, so he might pursue that. Mike Tuffrey (AM): Simon, last time you were before us, a couple of years ago now, you painted a picture- Simon Fletcher (Chief of Staff, GLA): A bit more recently than that. Mike Tuffrey (AM): No, sorry, I mean in terms of answering questions regarding how the Mayor’s Office functions. Simon Fletcher (Chief of Staff, GLA): More like 2002, I think. Mike Tuffrey (AM): Time flies when you are having fun. You painted a picture of a very well oiled machine. You said that every morning, 9 am, you meet the senior advisers and Joy Johnson [Director of Media and Marketing, GLA], you chair it, and then once a week the Mayor and his senior advisers meet, Monday morning, 10 am, and that the Mayoral Advisers know when they are getting it right and when they are getting it wrong. At that point in time we had this picture of a well-oiled, well- functioning, well-coordinated machine with you at the centre, making sure everything went according to plan. Can you tell us what has gone wrong, because the last few months have revealed a picture where that does not seem to be happening? Could you tell us how you now coordinate the work with the Mayor’s Office, how you oversee the work of the Mayor’s advisers and the extent to which you know what is going on? 1 Simon Fletcher (Chief of Staff, GLA): I think the issue, if one judges the picture as it really is, is that far from things being wrong things are going extremely well from the point of view of London, and the mayoralty plays an extremely important role in that. For example, if one takes the areas of responsibility relating to Lee Jasper [former Director, Equalities and Policing, GLA], which are crime, policing and equalities, we have record numbers of police in London. Mike Tuffrey (AM): Just so that you are clear, what I am trying to focus on is the functioning of the Mayor’s Office and we need to understand how it works. Simon Fletcher (Chief of Staff, GLA): The functioning of the Mayor’s Office is that we have record numbers of police in London: a beat police team in every neighbourhood; we have falling crime, down about 6% in the last year; we have murders down; we have rape down; if you are taking the case of equalities we have racist attacks down by 50%; the GLA is ranked second by Stonewall [organisation working for equality and justice for lesbians, gay men and bisexuals] as the best employer for lesbian and gay staff. Mike Tuffrey (AM): I understand all of that and much of that I praise. I just ask you to help us by answering our questions straight. Simon Fletcher (Chief of Staff, GLA): I am answering your questions straight; you said, ‘What’s gone wrong?’ Mike Tuffrey (AM): No, with the internal functioning of the Mayor’s Office. Simon Fletcher (Chief of Staff, GLA): You start from a perspective of you think something is going wrong. My perspective is London is easily the greatest city on earth and the mayoralty is playing a central role in helping to make that a better city every day. If you take, for example, that we have turned around the bus service- Mike Tuffrey (AM): No, please, Simon. Simon Fletcher (Chief of Staff, GLA): You obviously do not want to hear the good news, Mike. Mike Tuffrey (AM): No, your case will be made, frankly, if you answer the specific questions that we are asking and I am specifically talking about the internal functioning of the Mayor’s Office, so would you please do us and Londoners a favour and address those questions. I want to understand whether you still do have a daily meeting with the advisers. Simon Fletcher (Chief of Staff, GLA): I would say that we meet most of the normal days, yes. Mike Tuffrey (AM): What, you meet at 9 o’clock every morning to coordinate matters and once a week the Mayor and you and all of the advisers have a meeting together? Simon Fletcher (Chief of Staff, GLA): The key thing is we have a weekly meeting with the Mayor on a Monday, yes. 2 Mike Tuffrey (AM): We have a picture, then, that you are presenting to us where what goes on in the Mayor’s Office and with the advisers is something that is well coordinated; the Mayor knows what is going on and you know what is going on. Simon Fletcher (Chief of Staff, GLA): I do not think you could have reduced the number of cars driving into London by 70,000 cars if things were not well coordinated; I do not think you could turn around the bus service if things were not coordinated; I do not think you could cut crime and deliver more police if things were not coordinated. It seems to me you want to look at the smallest possible part of the picture and not the real picture of a city that is improving. Mike Tuffrey (AM): You take full accountability for all the things that have been revealed through this, and this is only the tip of the iceberg in terms of the affairs in relation to the LDA? You take full responsibility for that? When Manny Lewis says that Lee Jasper’s intervention was not appropriate, you think that was appropriate and you knew about the lack of declarations that were made in relationship to LDA matters, in relation to allegations of overseas trips? You presumably knew all of that because Lee Jasper would have cleared all that with you in your weekly meetings? Simon Fletcher (Chief of Staff, GLA): I do not know; which one of those do you want to me answer? Mike Tuffrey (AM): Well if I could just - Simon Fletcher (Chief of Staff, GLA): You have put several words into my mouth, which I have not had the opportunity to respond to. Mike Tuffrey (AM): I was saying things were not going so well and you asked me to justify it. Simon Fletcher (Chief of Staff, GLA): Let us take overseas trips; it is necessary to promote London abroad. Mike Tuffrey (AM): Is that what Lee Jasper was doing in relation to the allegations the BBC made on Monday? Simon Fletcher (Chief of Staff, GLA): What allegations did the BBC make? They said that he went to Jamaica and New York. I am not entirely clear what the actual allegation is. It is not a criticism of Tim’s [Donovan, BBC] report; I just do not know what the actual allegation is. Mike Tuffrey (AM): The allegations were that there were trips going on, funded either by private companies or unknown sources, on which the Mayor was blocking answers to the questions. You presumably knew exactly how that was done. John Ross (Director, Economic and Business Policy, GLA): I do, Mike, because I looked into it, so can I deal with that? Mike Tuffrey (AM): If you took responsibility for Lee Jasper’s overseas travel, then Simon - 3 John Ross (Director, Economic and Business Policy, GLA): No, Simon did, but I looked into the matter afterwards so I can answer your question. Simon Fletcher (Chief of Staff, GLA): I can answer part of it as well if you want. Mike Tuffrey (AM): If Simon would like to delegate the oversight of Lee Jasper’s foreign travel to you then you are the proper person to answer the question. Simon Fletcher (Chief of Staff, GLA): Two things: one is you did not really give me notice that you were going to ask me about it but I have looked into it as a result of Tim Donovan’s report and it is quite correct: I did sign off the report; the itinerary was agreed by the International Team, who are the correct officers to deal with such matters. As I understand it, Lee was speaking at the Chicago Push event, which is an event organised to deal with matters relating to equalities and the participation of the black community in business. Then he was speaking in Kingston, which is a city that we have a friendship agreement with. We have two kinds of agreement; one is a partnership arrangement - Mike Tuffrey (AM): So you knew all about this in advance and approved it? Simon Fletcher (Chief of Staff, GLA): I signed off the international trip after the International Team, who took responsibility for it, agreed it, and as far as I can see some very good things we were doing.