• Question by: Tom Copley
• Meeting date: 21 May 2015

Tom Copley AM: Thank you. Mr Mayor, there is a reason why we have not heard an awful lot from the Government about this new extension of right to buy since the election and that is because it has absolutely no clue how it is going to implement it. This is one of the policies that your party was hoping to drop in coalition negotiations with Assembly Member Knight’s party. There is a good reason why it has not been talked about and that is because it is incredibly difficult to deliver. Of course, you have equivocated on this. On...

• Question by: Steve O'Connell
• Meeting date: 21 May 2015

Steve O’Connell AM: Mr Mayor, certainly you personally can be proud of your record on affordable homes over your tenure. Moving on, this has been a very good debate. This is an issue that is very, very important. I welcome it in principle and I do not think we should forget or lose sight of the benefit that right to buy has given to many working-class people over many years. I spent the first 24 years of my life in Bellingham Estate. Over that period of time, I saw some neighbours buying their homes ‑‑ Boris Johnson MP (Mayor of...

• Question by: Darren Johnson
• Meeting date: 21 May 2015

Darren Johnson AM: You, yourself, Mayor, have said that there are legitimate concerns about this right-to-buy policy. Assembly Member Knight and Assembly Member Copley have both raised a number of serious concerns and flaws. Will you ask your officers here at City Hall for an assessment of the impact that it is likely to have on your Affordable Homes Programme?

• Question by: James Cleverly
• Meeting date: 25 March 2015

James Cleverly AM: Mr Mayor, who do you think we should listen to when it comes to the devolution of health budgets? Do you think we should listen to experienced, thoughtful and well-respected medical professionals like our own Dr Onkar Sahota or should we listen to the Shadow Health Secretary, who was quoted in the Manchester Evening News as having “slammed Greater Manchester’s shock NHS devolution master plan - warning that it will create a ‘two-tier’ health system” and saying it would “not be on offer” if he were in charge in May?

• Question by: Victoria Borwick
• Meeting date: 25 March 2015

Victoria Borwick AM: The point about us having this open discussion today - which, as you have said before, is not just seen in this Chamber but obviously through people watching it elsewhere and on the web - is that I hope you feel and understand the strength that we feel in supporting this unique part of London’s transport infrastructure. I also wanted to mention disabled accessibility and how important that is. The guys who become black cab taxi drivers have trained for many years, as you say yourself. They have invested in their vehicle, they have invested in their...

• Question by: James Cleverly
• Meeting date: 25 March 2015

James Cleverly AM: I declare an interest. I have a large number of taxi drivers resident in my constituency and I also have a large number of black cab users. One of the concerns I have from both the operators and the users of black cabs in suburban London is the availability of suburban taxi ranks. Will you pay serious consideration? Will you talk to officers at TfL about making availability on the roads that we control and making greater availability at suburban transport hubs for suburban taxi ranks?

• Question by: Darren Johnson
• Meeting date: 25 March 2015

Darren Johnson AM: You say that we need to raise our game on touting. Can I just have your assurance, therefore, that you will urge TfL to implement fully the recommendations from the cross-party evidence-based report that this Assembly did?

• Question by: Caroline Pidgeon
• Meeting date: 25 March 2015

Caroline Pidgeon MBE AM: Thank you very much. Mr Mayor, you can see the huge support that we have had from the taxi and private hire industries for our report, which I do hope you now have had the time to read. There is a desperate need for a simple strategy and a vision for how we can support the industries going forward and, clearly, to sort TfL out because there are huge problems there, as we have raised in our report. You said we have to raise our game; TfL has to hugely raise its game. In the spirit...

• Question by: Richard Tracey
• Meeting date: 25 March 2015

Richard Tracey AM: Indeed, Mr Mayor, a lot of the overall confusion about enforcement and everything is being caused by the proliferation of these apps for securing a car. Can I ask you point blank what the situation is over the legal case and the verification of what Uber [taxi hire mobile phone app] is up to in London? Clearly, it is quite a popular means of getting a car amongst many people, but we really need to be clear.

• Question by: Andrew Dismore
• Meeting date: 25 March 2015

Andrew Dismore AM: A straightforward question, Mr Mayor. Please, a straightforward answer. How many police officers did we have in Barnet in May 2010?