• Question by: Joanne McCartney
• Meeting date: 16 May 2019

Joanne McCarthy AM: Mr Mayor, poverty is a major barrier to social mobility and I am sure you were as shocked as I was this week when the London Child Poverty Alliance announced the new figures for poverty not only across the country but in London. It is increasing. If I can give you an example in my own boroughs of Enfield and Haringey, in Tottenham and Edmonton, nearly 49% of our children are living in poverty. This is after housing costs. Across my two boroughs, that means 66,000 children are living in poverty. You have already made some progress...

• Question by: Susan Hall
• Meeting date: 16 May 2019

Susan Hall AM: Thank you. Mr Mayor, it was with great distress that I read about the plight of Police Constable (PC) [Edwin] Sutton, who was forced to face a misconduct hearing by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) for knocking a suspect ‘moped mugger’, who incidentally had no licence or insurance, off his bike. What conversations have you had with the IOPC regarding the pursuit of police officers doing their jobs, and what representations have you made to reverse this trend? Also, have you spoken to the Commissioner [of Police of the Metropolis, Cressida Dick CBE QPM], asking...

• Question by: Caroline Pidgeon
• Meeting date: 16 May 2019

Caroline Pidgeon MBE AM: The recent Her Majesty’s Inspectors (HMI) report into child protection in the MPS was a really worrying read. HMI added in a new recommendation regarding online child protection and highlighted serious limitations with digital forensics, particularly it hindering police being able to secure prosecutions. What are you doing to help police officers with this need for new technology and access to digital forensics to help them secure more prosecutions and help stop these horrendous crimes against children?

• Question by: Andrew Dismore
• Meeting date: 16 May 2019

Andrew Dismore AM: What do you consider the priorities for Brexit now to be, after the extension, for Londoners of EU origin during this longer period of uncertainty?

• Question by: Joanne McCartney
• Meeting date: 16 May 2019

Joanne McCartney AM: Mr Mayor, I want to ask you about EU students following Brexit. If they are treated as international students they will be only entitled to stay and work for four months. Do you agree that they should be able to stay for at least two years, preferably longer?

• Question by: Len Duvall OBE
• Meeting date: 16 May 2019

Len Duvall AM: One of the important things in the devolution asks surely over the coming years ‑ it will not happen overnight ‑ is that we in London take more control working within the national setting around Ofsted and planning for school provisions. I do not think there is one London borough that is happy with the present relationships with the different czars and the competing and sometimes incoherent approaches that they take. Would it be better to bring it back to strategic London as well as working more collaboratively with the boroughs?

• Question by: Tony Arbour
• Meeting date: 16 May 2019

Tony Arbour AM (Deputy Chairman): I wonder, Mr Mayor, if you can tell us how much TfL has in its reserves.

• Question by: Susan Hall
• Meeting date: 16 May 2019

Susan Hall AM: Mr Mayor, the protestors were breaking the law. It is against the law to park a boat in the middle of Oxford Circus. It is against the law to block off bridges. You have just given the real reasons why it is so bad. Blue‑light services cannot get used, etc. If they could remove those vehicles at the end of this very long period, they could have removed them at the beginning. That would have saved millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money, all of which should be spent, with respect, looking after knife crime, not looking after...

• Question by: Susan Hall
• Meeting date: 16 May 2019

Susan Hall AM: Just to add, you have mentioned a couple of times, “We must get more police officers”, etc. I 100% agree, which is why we put in the amendment for the budget. Also, you must bear in mind, Mr Mayor, that we are 1,000 officers short of what is in the budget for those officers. If you were up to speed with the number of officers that you have paid for, then perhaps we would not be in this dreadful state we are in now. Stop asking for more officers when you have the money for them.

• Question by: Len Duvall OBE
• Meeting date: 16 May 2019

Len Duvall AM: A very interesting set of questions from Assembly Member Bailey. Mr Mayor, do you agree that politicians have a special responsibility in setting the right tone for a public debate in the country to make it easier for the police to tackle the scourge of hate crime, and that comments ‑ some from across the way there that said that multiculturalism risked turning into a “crime‑ridden cesspool” ‑ contribute to the climate in which hate crime takes place?