• Question by: Neil Garratt
• Meeting date: 14 October 2021

Neil Garratt AM: Good morning. I would like to pick up on this question about e-scooters and the ambiguous legal position that you have just been talking about and the enforcement. It is quite obvious, whether they are the legal trial ones or the illegal private ones, they present a real danger on pavements, particularly to blind pedestrians, frail pedestrians, and I am sure we all have a mailbag on that. However, what I also see is they have a great potential as an alternative to cars - and we are talking about a 21st century city and tackling climate...

• Question by: Lord Bailey of Paddington
• Meeting date: 14 October 2021

Shaun Bailey AM: I need to understand how you think I am expressing crocodile tears.

• Question by: Leonie Cooper
• Meeting date: 14 October 2021

Léonie Cooper AM: Mr Mayor, this is a really important discussion that we are having, but I am slightly concerned at the implication that the current situation, which is very concerning to all of us, affects only London - it does not only affect Black communities in London - and also that it may have only arisen since 2016. I can remember working in northeast London when Clapton was widely known to everybody there as ‘Murder Mile’ and that well predated 2016. Unfortunately, at that time, it was quite predominantly young Black men who were often murdering each other. I...

• Question by: Susan Hall
• Meeting date: 14 October 2021

Susan Hall AM: I am going to be very brief on this because I do not suppose I will get an answer because it is talking the talk and not walking the walk. I am really glad my colleague has brought this up. We have major problems here. Not only are our Black teenagers being murdered on the streets but, if you actually look, the Black community are being pulled into crime. Black Londoners make up 70% of knife homicide perpetrators, 42% of knife robbery on business property perpetrators and 59% of knife robbery of personal property. There is a...

• Question by: Caroline Russell
• Meeting date: 09 September 2021

Caroline Russell AM: Thank you very much, Mr Mayor, and I appreciate your support for the right to peacefully protest. I realise that policing London can be a difficult job, but I am worried that the way that the leadership of the MPS chose to police these protests may have worsened some of the disruption. For example, on the first day, until the police encircled the protest in the six-way junction at Long Acre and St Martin’s Lane, it was calm, mellow, and almost like a performance art event with people passing through the area accessing cafes, shops and restaurants...

• Question by: Nick Rogers
• Meeting date: 09 September 2021

Nicholas Rogers AM: Good afternoon, Mr Mayor. With reference to the London drug commission, could you explain how the membership of that commission is going to be decided?

• Question by: Krupesh Hirani
• Meeting date: 09 September 2021

Krupesh Hirani AM: In emergency situations like this it is always good to come together cross-party and make sure that we are doing all that we can to support refugees coming from Afghanistan. Moving from housing to education, skills and training, the Department for Education (DfE) has promised, to their credit, free English courses for Afghan refugees as part of the Government’s Operation Warm Welcome scheme. How are you working with the DfE to ensure that Afghan refugees can access English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) in light of the 50% reduction in funding from 2008 to 2015?

• Question by: Unmesh Desai
• Meeting date: 09 September 2021

Unmesh Desai AM: Mr Mayor, the causes of violent crime are complex, and you told us about the steps you are taking through the Young Londoners Fund to reduce violence among young Londoners. I also note your answers to the questions from Assembly Member Bailey. Do you not think it is important that we focus much more on early years intervention, providing proper and stable funding in this crucial area, which has been cut in recent years? Sure Start centres comes to mind; their funding has been cut by something like two thirds since 2010.

• Question by: Tony Devenish
• Meeting date: 09 September 2021

Tony Devenish AM: Mr Mayor, can I make a very short point on this because of time? This is just to do with a lapsed user, the closure of the residents’ discount for lapsed users. I wanted to read the words of a resident, one of the many residents who has written to me about this, Mrs Lesley Gilts, and she said to me: “I had my Congestion Charge payment on autopay. I walk to work and don’t drive much at the best of times, let alone during lockdown, and therefore I was not accessing my online account. As soon...

• Question by: Unmesh Desai
• Meeting date: 09 September 2021

Unmesh Desai AM: Mr Mayor, I am glad that you mentioned the Thames area. Of course, there is a responsibility of the Environment Agency, which is a Government body and you are quite right to point out it does not come under you. I read somewhere and I will send you more details in case your office or not aware of it, although I am sure they are, that if major works are not done to the Thames barrier by 2050 and then surely then countering the threats to London’s flood defences will be greatly diminished. I am not sure...