We work for you. London Assembly Annual Report for 2020/21 published

Today, the London Assembly releases its Annual Report. ‘How the London Assembly works for you’, which details how the Assembly highlighted important issues for Londoners during 2020-21.

During this period, the London Assembly marked its 20^th Anniversary. The Greater London Authority (GLA) was established on July 3rd in 2000, following a local referendum. It consists of two political branches: the executive mayoralty and the London Assembly, a 25-member cross party body tasked with holding the Mayor to account.

In March 2020, the Mayor of London and London Assembly elections were delayed a year, as the city turned its attention to tackling the COVID-19 virus.

Despite a torrid year for the capital, the report features some memorable achievements, which include:

• Questioning the Minister for Vaccine Deployment, Nadhim Zahawi MP, over meeting London’s vaccination targets, vaccine safety, and guaranteeing London’s fair share of vaccines.
• Honouring Diana, Princess of Wales, with an English Heritage Blue Plaque after the Assembly ‘Back the Plaque’ campaign.
• Supporting an amendment to the Domestic Abuse Bill calling for monitoring of serial and serious harm domestic abusers and stalkers, after the Assembly domestic abusers register campaign.
• Questioning the Deputy Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Stephen House QPM, to assess the police’s response to the Sarah Everard memorial vigil.
• Finding that rape and sexual offences rose by a quarter in London over the last five years but, shockingly, successful prosecutions dropped from one in nine down to one in 16.
• Meeting with Londoners to hear their stories and experiences of cladding and other fire safety defects. Our analysis found that waking watches cost Londoners living in fire-risk buildings £16,000 an hour due to the current cladding crisis.
• Launching a plan on how the Mayor could clean up the air at our schools and in city streets after we found 14 schools across 6 London boroughs are at, or exceed, the legal limit of NO2 pollution.

Navin Shah AM, Chair of the Assembly during 2020/21, said:

“The pandemic completely transformed our way of life. As the beating heart of the UK, the effort to control the pandemic in London has been critical. As Assembly Members, we’ve focused our time and effort on the work being done to protect Londoners’ lives, health, learning, safety and incomes.

“This report shows there is a clear message of inspiration as communities drew together to help those in need. And there is a message of strength in how we all united to defend the city from the virus. We are all very proud to be Londoners.”