£317,000... the cost to taxpayers of asking Boris Johnson questions at City Hall

Expensive: Boris Johnson giving answers
12 April 2012

Taxpayers pick up a bill of more than £300,000 a year for City Hall politicians to ask Boris Johnson questions.

Members of the London Assembly, the 25-strong cross-party body that scrutinises the Mayor, submit around 4,250 questions a year. But it costs an average of £74.57 to answer each one, according to Tory Assembly member Andrew Boff, who asked Mr Johnson: "How much does it cost to answer this question?"

This is half the cost of the Government answering a written question from an MP, currently around £149. In the last parliamentary session, backbenchers and opposition members asked 25,467 questions for written answer.

At City Hall, the annual cost of answering the questions to the Mayor was calculated at £316,920. It takes the Mayor's aides 946 hours a month to prepare the answers, with those involved earning an average £33.44 an hour. When the number of Mayor's question times is factored in — there are 10 a year — this gives the total cost. Mr Johnson was recently asked about moves to prevent a Tube strike during the Olympics, clearing the peace camp from Parliament Square and funding for Crossrail.

But other questions ranged from the trivial to "parish pump" issues. These included queries about a phone line for Tube buskers, the C10 bus, the use of "cruelty-free" cleaning products at City Hall, a toucan crossing in Twickenham and how a taxi's age is measured if it is fitted with a new engine.

One Labour member asked Mr Johnson whether it was right for Tory MPs to cheer a cuts announcement in the Commons, while another asked: "Can Londoners believe a word you say?" To which the Mayor replied: "Yes."

Brian Coleman, Tory Assembly member for Barnet and Camden, said: "I think there should be a block on questions — six each a month is enough. If you want to raise a constituency matter you can always write a letter.

"I only put a question down if I have not had satisfaction with the letter. A lot of the people only ask questions as a substitute for doing proper constituency work."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in