• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 12 June 2002

I think, to all intents and purposes, your average Londoner would assume that you are, with great respect to my colleague the Deputy Mayor, effectively a deputy mayor of London. Do you imagine there could be circumstances where a different Simon Fletcher or a different mayor might employ someone in your position who would have a more public persona and would, for example, be interviewed and speak on behalf of the Mayor to TV cameras?

• Question by: Graham Tope
• Meeting date: 12 June 2002

Let's have both: when the Mayor is away, and in general.

• Question by: Graham Tope
• Meeting date: 12 June 2002

Is there any written record of executive decisions that you take in the Mayor's name?

• Question by: Graham Tope
• Meeting date: 12 June 2002

But is there a written scheme of delegation? The answer, presumably, is no.

• Question by: Graham Tope
• Meeting date: 12 June 2002

I have no recollection at all of any delegation to a chief of staff, or indeed any mention in the Act of a chief of staff under the Act. Delegation, as far as I recall, was actually to the Deputy Mayor.

• Question by: Graham Tope
• Meeting date: 12 June 2002

I think most of us with public sector experience are aware of the need to delegate decisions to officers sometimes, but always in my experience in local government there is a scheme of delegation. You've talked about how you delegate some of your responsibilities. What I think we're more interested in is how the Mayor delegates some of his responsibilities to you as Chief of Staff. How does that happen? Is there an agreed scheme of delegation which sets the framework for this?

• Question by: Graham Tope
• Meeting date: 12 June 2002

: And is it publicly available or available to us?

• Question by: Graham Tope
• Meeting date: 12 June 2002

Thank you, Simon, for that explanation, which I certainly did find helpful. Because I'm first this morning I wanted to try and establish more clearly exactly what you do in the formal sense and the lines of accountability and so on. I have some difficulty because, frankly, a lot of the questions that we would like to ask, or to which we would like to have answers, are probably more properly put to and answered by the Mayor rather than by you. But nevertheless, you are in front of us. Can I just establish for all of us some facts...

• Question by: Sally Hamwee
• Meeting date: 12 June 2002

Some commentators of the way the GLA Act is working have suggested that it would be more transparent for the Mayor to have the power to appoint deputies, rather than for him to be obliged to appoint an Assembly Member in the way we have at the moment. What's your view of that?

• Question by: Tony Arbour
• Meeting date: 12 June 2002

Would you write her speeches in those circumstances?