• Question by: Roger Evans
• Meeting date: 02 December 2015

Roger Evans AM: If you consider the 13 appliances that you are considering taking away plus the ones that were removed before, I believe the saving is around £25 million. If by some miracle you were to have £25 million returned to your budget, Commissioner, would you ideally spend it on putting those appliances back or would you have other priorities that you think would keep London safer?

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 02 December 2015

Mayor John Biggs AM: Thank you very much for your earlier answers. I obviously have a parochial interest as the Assembly Member for East London. Particularly Newham but also Tower Hamlets have been adversely affected by the closure of fire stations and the loss of appliances. In your current proposals, potentially we lose another three appliances in Poplar, Plaistow and Stratford and a fourth nearby in Shoreditch. Can you tell us what the cumulative impact would be on residents in my constituency in East London and whether there would be more areas that will fall outside the six-minute response time...

• Question by: Richard Tracey
• Meeting date: 18 November 2015

Richard Tracey AM: OK. Thank you, Chair. Mr Mayor, I am rather intrigued by this line of questioning from my Transport Committee colleague Val Shawcross because she is worrying, quite rightly, about any potential loss of any of the wonderful bus services we have, but at the same time, as you and I discussed earlier, the Labour Party ‑‑ Boris Johnson MP (Mayor of London): I was hoping you would bring this up. Richard Tracey AM: ‑‑ is talking about a four-year freeze in fares, a £2 billion loss ‑‑ Boris Johnson MP (Mayor of London): --hopelessly. Richard Tracey AM...

• Question by: Fiona Twycross
• Meeting date: 18 November 2015

Fiona Twycross AM: As part of the mayoral strategy to tackle violence against women and girls, you committed to securing prosecutions around female genital mutilation (FGM). So far this year, as you will be aware, there has been just one unsuccessful prosecution for FGM. With significant reductions in funding to the MPS, as outlined by previous speakers including Joanne McCartney, what are you doing to ensure that prosecutions for FGM remain a priority?

• Question by: Roger Evans
• Meeting date: 18 November 2015

Roger Evans AM: In the past, Boris, we have talked about possibly devolving the LAS to the Greater London Authority. Would it be helpful, from your point of view, to actually have the LAS bundled up with the other emergency services under our control so that you can achieve economies of scale and have the three services working together better?

• Question by: Gareth Bacon MP
• Meeting date: 18 November 2015

Gareth Bacon AM: Andrew Dismore has just referred to the 13 appliances that have been held for the contingency cover for more than the last two years. Of course, this predates LSP5. The 13 appliances that he is referring to have been off the run since before LSP5. If they were to be withdrawn permanently, Mr Mayor, it would not be affecting the frontline service and so you would not be breaking your promise under LSP5, as he well knows. He also knows, Mr Mayor, that no decision has been taken on the 13 appliances because he chairs the [LFEPA]...

• Question by: Andrew Boff
• Meeting date: 18 November 2015

Andrew Boff AM: Mr Mayor, when the vision just proposed by Mr Copley is established, can I be on that committee for state-assessed need that will process the hundreds of thousands of applications that will be necessary for anybody who wants permission to buy a property in London? That will be a really good job. Could you tell me what the salary is going to be? Thank you very much.

• Question by: Richard Tracey
• Meeting date: 18 November 2015

Richard Tracey AM: Mr Mayor, as a parent and indeed a grandparent, I am particularly sympathetic to this question. I wonder. Do you think that we are doing enough to promote starter homes for young people? Are we investigating sufficiently pop-up homes, which I understand is one potential solution, or the excellent Wandsworth Council scheme of Hidden Homes? Indeed, are you convinced that enough of the local authorities in London are refurbishing some of their old housing stock in order that it is prepared?

• Question by: Roger Evans
• Meeting date: 18 November 2015

Roger Evans AM: This is an interesting debate, Mr Mayor. How do you reconcile the call for methods of production of energy that are effectively more expensive with the need to keep prices down to prevent fuel poverty and to protect jobs in heavy industry?

• Question by: Murad Qureshi
• Meeting date: 18 November 2015

Murad Qureshi AM: Mr Mayor, do you accept the existence of ‘carbon bubbles’, as Mark Carney of the Bank of England has highlighted recently in his speech, as being ‘unburnable’?