The Greater London Authority: Creating a New Institution

Abstract

The first year of any new body is important: customs and practices will be adopted that influence its operation for many years. The GLA’s decisions about standing orders, procedures, relations between the assembly and mayor and many other features evolved immediately after May 2000 in ways that will affect it for years to come. Yet many ways of doing things were not set in stone by 2003 and could be radically changed in the longer term. Certainly, another mayor could adopt very different ways of relating to the assembly. The assembly will have evolved their own procedures significantly before the second election in 2004.