Sections 61 to 65: Attendance of witnesses and production of documents
127.Section 61 contains powers for the Assembly to summon certain categories of people to give evidence at its meetings and to produce documents.
128.Subsections (2) to (5) set out the categories of persons who may be required to attend or to produce documents. These are:
Any person who is a senior member of staff of the Authority or of one of the four functional bodies: TfL, the London Development Agency, the Metropolitan Police Authority and the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority.
Any person who is chairman or a member of the board of one of the four functional bodies.
Any person who in the preceding three years has been a chairman or a member of one of the four functional bodies.
Any person who has, or any person who is a member, or a member of staff, of a body which has, within the preceding three years had a contractual relationship with the Authority.
Any person who has, or any person who is a member, or a member of staff, of a body which has, in the preceding three years received a grant from the Authority.
Any person who is a member of the Assembly.
Any person who in the preceding three years has been a member of the Assembly.
Any person who in the preceding three years has been the Mayor.
129.The Assembly will not be able to require GLA staff, functional bodies or their members or staff, to give evidence or produce documents which would disclose advice given to the Mayor.
130.Section 62 sets out the procedures the Assembly will be required to follow when it requires attendance at its meetings. These include the timescales within which the Head of Paid Service of the Authority (see below) must give notice of where and when people are to attend, and the documents or types of documents they must produce.
131.Section 63 provides that the Secretary of State may make orders prescribing the categories of information which a person summoned to give evidence to the Assembly may refuse to give, and categories of document which such a person may refuse to produce. Orders under this power are statutory instruments which are subject to the negative resolution procedure of the Houses of Parliament (as provided by section 420).
132.Section 64 covers the consequences of failure to attend proceedings. It will be an offence for somebody who falls into the categories set out in section 61 to:
refuse or fail to attend the proceedings to which he or she is summoned, without reasonable excuse;
refuse to answer questions which are properly put;
refuse to produce documents which have been requested, without reasonable excuse; or
intentionally alter, suppress or conceal any documents requested.
133.Any person found guilty of such an offence will be subject to a fine of no more than level 5 on the standard scale (currently specified under the Criminal Justice Acts as £5,000) or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding three months.
134.Section 65 provides that the Assembly's openness rules under section 58, with some modifications, apply to hearings under section 61. Hearings will be open to the public, and documents available for public inspection subject to exceptions for confidential and exempt information. Transcripts or other records of evidence will be available for public inspection, as will additional papers supplied by witnesses or documents prepared for Assembly members to use at the hearings.