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The London Assembly

What is the London Assembly?
The London Assembly is a scrutinising body with 25 members. All 25 are elected by voters in London, at the same time as they vote for the Mayor.

The electoral system used to elect the Members is complex. It takes account of the London boroughs (which are grouped for this purpose into 14 constituencies), party lists and independent candidates, and is designed to produce a distribution of seats that will always be proportional to the total votes cast across London. The outcome of the first election was to produce nine Labour members, nine Conservative Members, four Liberal Democrat members and three members of the Green Party.

Assembly Members elect a Chair and Deputy Chair in May each year.

What does the London Assembly do?

• provides a check and a balance on the Mayor
• has powers to amend the Mayor's budget subject to a two-thirds majority decision
• appoints the GLA's Chief Executive, Monitoring Officer, Chief Finance Officer and all other members of the Authority's staff
• investigates issues of Londonwide significance and makes proposals to appropriate stakeholders
• scrutinises the Mayor's performance and makes proposals to the Mayor
• has a power to summon the Mayor, senior staff of the Authority and functional bodies, and bodies or persons in a contractual relationship with, or in receipt of grant from the Authority
• provides members to serve on the Metropolitan Police Authority, the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority, and the London Development Agency
• provides the Deputy Mayor, who is chosen by the Mayor.

How does the London Assembly keep a check on the Mayor?
The Mayor must:

• consult the Assembly when preparing strategies
• inform the Assembly of all major decisions and the reasons for them
• submit the GLA budget to the Assembly for approval and
• attend ten question time sessions each year at which the Mayor and members of the administration can be questioned by the Assembly about their actions.

The Assembly reviews the Mayor's draft strategies and give its views on them in meetings that are open to the public.

The Mayor's budget covers the core GLA and the four major functional bodies in the GLA family: the Metropolitan Police Authority, the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority, the London Development Agency, and Transport for London. The Assembly scrutinises the Mayor's budget and votes on whether to approve it in open meetings that must take place before the end of February each year because decisions made in this budget have an effect on London's council taxes and council tax bills go out in March.

How is the London Assembly accountable to Londoners?

• The London Assembly is elected every four years, at the same time as the Mayor. Assembly members are required to take decisions as far as possible in full public view. For example, the records of meetings and papers submitted to the Assembly and its reports are made available to the public on this web site - see the Assembly meetings page - or on request from the GLA.
• The Mayor and Assembly attend a twice yearly People's Question Time at which the public are able to put questions to the Mayor and Assembly. The meetings are held in different locations around London and are open to all, but can be popular and so you may need to apply to the GLA for a ticket to secure a place.
• Assembly plenary sessions and committee meetings are open to the public.
• The results of Assembly scrutinies are published.

Are London Assembly members paid?
Yes - view salary information for the current financial year.

London Assembly members
Full list of London Assembly members

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