MD2776 City Operations

1.1. The Mayor has a strategic role in leading and communicating on events that affect the life of Londoners including in relation to London’s social development, its economy and its environment.

1.2. The GLA and the Mayor (in exercising the functions of the GLA) have responsibilities as a Category One responder as defined under the Civil Contingencies Act 2004. This includes assessing the risk of emergencies occurring and maintaining arrangements to warn, inform and advise the public in the event of an emergency. This is recognised in the London Resilience Forum’s Strategic Coordination Protocol, which confirms the Mayor’s role to act as the ‘voice of London’ in response to an incident.

1.3. The GLA also has responsibility for the management of selected locations in London including Parliament Square Garden and Trafalgar Square. The GLA’s functional bodies such as Transport for London have broad-ranging related responsibilities e.g. in terms of land holdings, infrastructure and management of London’s transport network more generally. It is therefore important that there is capacity to monitor and scan for any incidents on GLA Group-managed land, as these may require particular action and response from the Mayor and GLA.

1.4. The GLA’s City Operations Unit has the responsibility of informing the Mayor and stakeholders within the GLA regarding events and incidents that might cause disruption in London and it is vital that the Mayor has the most accurate, current information at his disposal. This is to enable the Mayor to speak with authority and lead London in a crisis, and further the GLA’s objectives with regard economic development, social development and improving the environment in London. It also facilitates and is conductive to the exercise of the functions of the GLA exercisable by the Mayor.

1.5. In order to ensure that these responsibilities are met, the City Operations Unit are able to monitor and collate an accurate information snapshot and horizon scan for upcoming incidents or events in London.

2.1. The City Operations Unit in the GLA provides a situational awareness capability. The objective is to identify, process and analyse information about what is happening in London and provide this information to the Mayor and to stakeholders.

2.2. Obtaining information on incidents and events in London, particularly when disruption to London is a possibility, would allow City Operations to support the Mayor in his strategic role as well as the operations of its functional bodies for which the GLA has a facilitative and coordinating role.

2.3. The outcome of this decision is for authority to be delegated to the Head of City Operations to approve procurement and related expenditure for subscriptions and licences in relation to the work of the City Operations Unit and also if deemed necessary, for any related exemption from section 9 of the Contracts and Funding Code to the requirements to seek competitive tenders, where an exemption applies as set out in section 10 of the Code.

3.1. Under section 149 of the Equality Act 2010 (the “Equality Act”), as a public authority, the Mayor and the GLA must have due regard to the need to eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and any other conduct prohibited by the Equality Act 2010, and to advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it. Protected characteristics under the Equality Act comprise age, disability, gender re-assignment, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, and marriage or civil partnership status (the duty in respect of this last characteristic is to eliminate unlawful discrimination only).

3.2. The potential impacts of this decision have been considered and no adverse impact is expected on equalities issues or any people with relevant protected characteristics under section 149 of the Equality Act.

4.1. This decision is related to the GLA and Mayor’s responsibilities as being the ‘Voice of London’ and communicating to Londoners about events and incidents that may affect them. The Mayor’s role in London’s strategic incident coordination arrangements were agreed through consultation by the London Resilience Forum.

4.2. There are no conflicts of interest from those involved in drafting this decision or its clearance.

5.1. Mayoral approval is being sought for the delegation of authority to the Head of City Operations to approve the procurements and related expenditure of up to £250,000, as well as any receipt and spend of income, for the purpose of subscriptions and licences in relation to the work of the City Operations Unit for financial years 2021-22 to 2024-25. The annual expenditure of up to £250,000 will be funded from City Operations 2021-22 budget and/or income receipts. Future years’ budget for this will be subject to each year’s budget setting process.

6.1. The foregoing sections of this report indicate that:

• the decisions requested of the Mayor concern the exercise of the GLA’s general powers, falling within the GLA’s statutory powers to do such things considered to further or which are facilitative of, conducive or incidental to, the promotion of economic development and wealth creation, social development or the promotion of the improvement of the environment in Greater London;
• in formulating the proposals in respect of which a decision is sought officers have complied with the Authority’s related statutory duties to:
  • pay due regard to the principle that there should equality of opportunity for all people;
  • consider how the proposals will promote the improvement of health of persons, health inequalities between persons and to contribute toward the achievement of sustainable development in the United Kingdom; and
  • consult with appropriate bodies.

6.2. In taking the decisions requested, the Mayor must have due regard to the Public Sector Equality Duty; namely the need to eliminate discrimination, harassment, victimisation and any other conduct prohibited by the Equality Act 2010, and to advance equality of opportunity between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic (race, disability, sex, age, sexual orientation, religion) and foster good relations between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it (section 149 of the Equality Act 2010). To this end, the Mayor should have particular regard to section 3 (above) of this report.

6.3. The Mayor may, under section 38 of the Act, delegate the exercise of the GLA’s functions to the Head of City Operations as proposed.

7.1. The subscriptions and licences are expected to be operational by December 2021.