MD1576 Events for London Programme 2016-17

1.1 The Mayor is statutorily required under the Greater London Authority Act 1999 (GLA Act) to carry out a minimum of two public consultation events (People’s Question Time) and a State of London Debate.
1.2 Under the same Act, the Mayor has a statutory duty to develop and promote London as a destination and gateway for the UK, as well as to promote social development in London. Events have a profound potential to bring economic and social benefits to London, and major events in particular can raise the city’s profile and present a positive image to the world’s media.
1.3 Events bring Londoners together from across the city, from different communities, creating a sense of shared interests and culture. Most importantly, major events stimulate London’s economy, by being a catalyst for economic regeneration and creating publicity to increase the attractiveness of London to new visitors and investors – as well as to Londoners.

Events Programme

1.4 The London Events programme has been delivered successfully since 2003, enhancing and enriching London with events to meet the needs of and engage with all Londoners.
1.5 The proposed events programme supports the promotion of London’s diverse cultures contributing both to the international profile of London, and promoting the city as a destination in specific markets. It also encourages the fuller participation of all its communities, contributing to all sectors of the London economy. Events bring Londoners together from across the city, from different communities, creating a sense of shared interest and culture, thus helping to encourage social development and cohesion.
1.6 On a more subjective level, events help to improve Londoners’ quality of life and support their general well-being. Particularly at a time where Londoners’ disposable income may be limited, free events provide Londoners access to entertainment, providing enjoyment and a ‘feel good’ factor. Events also enable people to interact and engage on a social level, as well as feel part of a community.
1.7 The development and planning of the events often involves support and engagement from the community through volunteering, providing added benefits to volunteers of education or increased skills by working on different parts of the event. This also contributes to peoples’ sense of positive well-being. We will be working with the Team London Ambassadors programme as part of the Games legacy, having these volunteers at the major events.
1.8 The proposed 2016/17 events programme in outlined in table 1.

Table 1

GLA Delivered Events

1.9 The GLA Events for London team produces and delivers a number of cultural events that celebrate national celebrations such as New Year’s Eve and St George’s Day, as well as religious festivals such as Diwali and Vaisakhi. In addition to the annual programme we will also be supporting a number of one off special events including the Queen’s 90th birthday celebrations, 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s life and events to celebrate the Rio Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Statutory Events

1.10 The Greater London Authority is statutorily required under the Greater London Authority Act 1999 (GLA Act) to carry out public consultation meetings. These are in the form of People’s Question Time events and the annual State of London Debate (SOLD).
People’s Question Time

1.11 These events take place in a variety of locations across London providing the opportunity for the public to meet and ask questions to the Mayor and the London Assembly. It offers the Mayor and London Assembly the opportunity to deliver and discuss with the London Community their plans, priorities and policies for London.

State of London Debate

1.12 SOLD links to the publication of the Mayor’s annual report. It is a flagship Mayoral engagement and consultation event for all Londoners and provides an opportunity for direct engagement with members of the community to debate and provide feedback on the Mayor’s strategies and priorities for London. The event allows facilitation of a Q&A session allowing members of the audience to question the Mayor directly on issues of concern. Issues raised at the event can then be fed back directly into policy development.

1.13 Particular efforts are made to ensure the audience reflects London’s diversity as well as the key equalities target groups and wider audiences are accessed through radio debate and online debate.

GLA Grant Funded Events

1.14 As can be seen from Table 1 above certain events are events of third parties for which the GLA provide grant funding. Recipients are required to go through stringent checks both financial and legally – complete grant funding forms, being clear on the events aims and objectives, how this fits in with the Mayor’s objectives and culturally enhances the capital.
1.15 The GLA event officers work closely with the recipients of GLA funding to ensure successful delivery of funded events. Clear milestones are set within the funding agreements and it is only at the time the milestones are met that funding is released. These milestones ensure the safety of GLA funding and cover any risk involved in supporting these events.
1.16 The GLA’s financial support for the grant funded events indicated within the table 1 above is only a small element of the cost of these events. Supporting these events enables Mayoral profile and highlights the Mayor’s support to the communities involved in the delivery. As such a return should be considered excellent value for money.

Non-Event Activity

Access Development

1.17 Following the level of accessibility achieved during 2012 and Games-time, the GLA are committed to continuing and enhancing best practise at GLA Delivered Events, as well as working towards the attainment of ISO20121.

Evaluation and reporting

1.18 Market research is to be conducted at each event, with input into the questions from GLA Marketing, Intelligence and Economics teams to ensure they are relevant to provide appropriate analysis. The results from each individual event can be used to benchmark against other events, as well as determine where refinement on questions or analysis is made. Additionally, feedback and results from a particular event can help shape the delivery or make improvements to subsequent events.

Sponsorship and other income

1.19 For the events delivered by the GLA, sponsorship, other income and concessions (if relevant and appropriate e.g. food and drink stalls/ tents on Trafalgar square) will be sought as in previous years, the target being £355,000. Income received is usually specific to the individual event and provided on the basis that the additional money funds additional activity above the core event activity. Should income not meet budgeted targets the events will be delivered within the budgeted GLA funding available and income secured. If sponsorship over the target is secured, the event would be enhanced in line with this increased budget, or in the event of a significant increase from sponsorship and the event not needing to be enhanced further, the GLA contribution to the event would be reduced.

1.20 In addition to cash income, the GLA Commercial Partnerships Team will also seek benefit in kind to assist in the enhancement and publicity of events.

Commissioned outcomes

2.1 There is a target of generating additional spend in the local economy of up to £37.5m. Whilst it is clear that events stimulate additional spending, and this research has been taken at events within the GLA event programme, it should be noted that the true level of additionality of extra spending is difficult to determine precisely as the sample size of attendees at each event is relatively small.

2.2 Events can deliver positive externalities through visitor satisfaction and if delivered successfully can promote London as a leading global city encouraging investment and tourism.

2.3 Active promotion of wider mayoral priorities directly to key community groups or audiences, and to captive audiences. Evaluated through the attendance at events and market research at the event on recall, and through digital traffic and click through rates on the GLA website.

Non-quantifiable benefits

2.4 The non-quantifiable benefits of the programme are;

• Increased positive global reputation of London.
• Positive profile for London, encouraging economic investment.
• Education and increased awareness of other communities in London encouraging social cohesion.
• Increased skills through volunteering opportunities
• There are a number of subjective benefits to staging the events programme, including;
o Encouraging a sense of pride in Londoners for the city they live
o Enjoyment and satisfaction to support the well-being of Londoners and improving their quality of life (particularly where Londoners disposable income is limited and free events offer access to entertainment providing a ‘feel-good’ factor).
o Increased sense of community through volunteering opportunities and social interaction at events.

3.1 The events programme is planned to be inclusive and aimed at all Londoners, culturally and socially. Within the programme different events engage with, and promote the contribution of, specific communities e.g. Pride - LGBT community; Eid - Muslim community; Liberty – Deaf and disabled community; Africa in the Square – African community. Community stakeholder groups are engaged in the planning and promotion of the community events to ensure that they are appropriate and representative of the groups for which the event promotes.

Procurement

4.1 Events delivered by the GLA will be procured under the Events Framework, for event production services. Events receiving funding will be on the basis of funding agreements, with pre-determined milestones to receive the funding. All events will be managed by an events officer from within the Events for London team.

Links to strategies and Corporate Plan

4.2 In approving the Events Programme, this directly links to:

• Developing world-class events in line with the Mayor’s Cultural Strategy – to assist in the development of a ‘stimulating, creative and cultural London’, and the pledge to ‘commission a series of events in Trafalgar Square, as well as cultural campaigns and festivals’.
• Developing ‘a programme of activities/events to engage with London’s diverse communities to help deliver the Mayor’s priorities, strategies and policies, as well as celebrate London’s rich diversity’.
• Promoting sustained economic growth and competitiveness of London as a World City through tourism, economic development and positive media coverage.

Impact assessments and Consultation

4.3 The impact assessment of the events will be on an event by event basis through the multi-agency planning process (Licensing Operational Safety Planning Groups), including Westminster City Council (or other local authority impacted), MPS, TfL, LAS, LFB and other key stakeholders to the specific event. This is an essential part of the Premise Licence process. Key agencies will be consulted as part of this multi-agency process.

4.4 Neighbours on Trafalgar Square are consulted regularly and through established quarterly planning meetings.

4.5 Where events involve specific communities, these communities are engaged though a stakeholder group who advise on the event. Public correspondence, via the GLA Public Liaison Unit (PLU), and market research at events is also considered for future planning of events where negative comments and improvement suggestions are made and may be reasonably implemented.

4.6 Risk

Table 2

5.1 The net cost to the GLA of the proposed 2016-17 Events for London Programme (excluding New Year’s Eve, which was approved as part of a three year plan in MD1127) is £1,095,000 (gross £1,450,000 with income of £355,000).

5.2 Expenditure will be met from the indicative Events for London 2016-17 programme budget, which is subject to approval as part of the 2016/17 budget approval process.

5.3 MD1124 approved grant funding totalling £500,000 to London LGBT and Community Pride for the Pride 2013 to 2017 events. To date £350,000 has been allocated across Pride 2013 to 2015. This leaves £150,000 funding available for the Pride 2016 and Pride 2017 Events, the profiles of which have yet to be agreed.

5.4 The net cost to the GLA has not reduced in line with the funding profile of the Pride event as this funding is being redirected to fund ad-hoc commemorations taking place in 2016/17.

5.5 In addition to seeking out cash contributions from third parties, the Commercial Partnerships Team will look to obtain benefit in kind to assist in publicity and the enhancement of events, the value of which is not included in the cost estimations.

Approval of Budget
6.1 Under section 30 of the Greater London Authority Act 1999 (the ‘Act’) the mayor, acting on behalf of the GLA, and after appropriate consultation, is entitled to do anything that the mayor considers will further the promotion, within Greater London, of economic development and wealth creation, social development and the improvement of the environment.

6.2 Section 34 of the Act allows the mayor to do anything which is calculated to facilitate, or is conducive or incidental to, the exercise of any functions of the GLA. In the instant case, the approval of the GLA’s 2016-17 events programme and the attendant budget of up to £1,095,000 and the seeking of sponsorship of £355,000 in order to enhance the events programme may be viewed as calculated to facilitate social development in Greater London.

6.3 Taken together, the expenditure on the events programme totals an amount of up to £1,450,000 notwithstanding that the GLA’s budget for the events programme totals an amount of up to £1,095,000. The short fall of £355,000 is to be met by sponsorship. The officers are advised only to commit to expenditure of those funds, which they have secured either by way of the budgetary allocation or by way of up-front sponsorship.

Grants in Support of Events
6.4 A tranche of the budget will be allocated to grants in support of a number of events including Totally Thames and Pride (see Table 1 above for full list). To this end, the officers are reminded of the requirements of paragraphs 2.5 and 6.4 of the GLA’s Contracts and Funding Code; in particular, that funding must be distributed fairly, transparently and in accordance with the GLA’s equalities obligations and that the officers should have regard to the prudence of undertaking a competitive exercise as a way of ascertaining, to whom the GLA’s funding should be granted.

6.5 In carrying out the events programme, the officers are reminded of the requirements set out in section 30(5) of the Act. Namely, that in exercising the GLA’s general power under section 30 of the Act, the GLA must do this in a way, which is considered best calculated to:
6.5.1 promote improvements in the health of persons in Greater London;
6.5.2 promote the reduction of health inequalities between persons living in Greater London;
6.5.3 contribute towards the achievement of sustainable development in the United Kingdom; and
6.5.4 contribute to the mitigation of, or adaptation to, climate change in the United Kingdom.

Procurement
6.6 The officers are reminded that the requirements of the Contracts and Funding Code apply to all the procurements, which are carried out by the GLA.

Delegation of Authority
6.7 Section 38 (1) of the Act provides that any function exercisable on behalf of the GLA by the mayor shall also be exercisable on behalf of the GLA by any member of staff of the GLA if or to the extent that the mayor so authorises, whether generally or specially, and subject to any conditions imposed by the mayor.

6.8 In the instant case, decision 3 seeks a delegation of mayoral authority to the Director of Communications and External Affairs for the purposes of approving all further arrangements for the delivery of the events programme. The said director is a member of staff of the GLA and accordingly, the mayor may make the requested delegation, if he be so minded.

Table 3