100.The Act requires the Mayor to produce a number of strategies, including strategies in relation to transport (section 142); economic development and regeneration (section 306); spatial development (section 334); biodiversity (section 352); municipal waste management (section 353); air quality (section 362); ambient noise (section 370); and culture (section 376).
101.Section 41 sets out the strategies to which the general duties of the Mayor apply, the duty of the Mayor to review and revise the strategies, and the matters to which the Mayor must have regard in preparing, revising or implementing those strategies. In preparing, reviewing or amending the strategies, the Mayor shall have regard to the need to ensure that each of the strategies is consistent with national policy and with such international obligations as the Secretary of State may notify to the Mayor, and with the other strategies. The Mayor shall also have regard to the principal purposes of the Authority and the effect the proposed strategy or revision would have on the health of people in London and the achievement of sustainable development in the United Kingdom. The Mayor shall also have regard to the resources available to implement each strategy, the desirability of promoting the improvement of the health of Londoners and the desirability of promoting and encouraging the use of the River Thames safely – in particular for passenger transport and freight transportation. The Mayor must set such targets as he or she considers appropriate for implementing each of the strategies. In doing so the Mayor shall have regard to national targets, objectives and performance indicators, and shall seek to secure that the targets set are not less demanding than these.
102.Section 42 places a duty on the Mayor to carry out consultations in preparing or revising the strategies. The Mayor shall consult, in the first instance, the Assembly and the functional bodies, and subsequently each London borough council and the Common Council. The Mayor shall also consult any other organisation or individual he or she considers it appropriate to consult, including bodies of the descriptions in section 32(3). Subsection (6) exempts the Mayor from the duty to consult as to a proposed revision of strategies where he or she considers those revisions do not materially alter the strategy: it will be for the Mayor to decide whether or not revisions to the strategies materially alter those strategies and therefore whether or not consultation about those revisions are necessary.
103.Section 43 requires the Mayor to take steps to give adequate publicity to the strategies, to send a copy to each London Borough and the Common Council, to make the current versions of them available for public inspection at the GLA’s offices and other suitable places, and to provide them at a reasonable cost to any person who asks for them.
104.Section 44 provides for directions by the Secretary of State as respects the preparation and publication of the first strategies. Should the Secretary of State consider that the Mayor who is first elected is failing to take the necessary steps to prepare the strategies, the Secretary of State will have a reserve power to direct the Mayor to prepare and publish the strategies within a specified period of time.
Commentary on Sections Part Ii: General Functions and Procedure Sections 41 to 44: The Mayor's strategies