Mr Livingstone will be sworn in as London's first directly elected mayor on Monday, after which he and the 25 members of the Greater London Assembly, as the new Greater London Authority (GLA), will spend several weeks preparing for their new jobs.
The new authority will officially begin work on July 3rd and will have a budget of about £3.7 billion, drawn from government funds already available and council tax paid by Londoners. The authority will cost about £26 million a year to run, with estimated start-up costs of about £20 million. The mayor will have responsibility for eight key areas affecting London: transport, planning, economic development and regeneration, the environment, police, fire and emergency planning, culture and health.
The mayor has the power to make appointments to and set budgets for four new functional bodies and he will also be able to make recommendations to the Home Secretary on the appointment of the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police.
Further details can be found at: www.london.gov.uk/gla/mayor.html