• Question by: Leonie Cooper
• Meeting date: 05 June 2025

Len Duvall AM (Chair): Sorry to interrupt, the Lib Dems are now out of time. Maybe you will follow up outside the meeting. There was a lot of lenience there. Can we move then to Assembly Member Cooper? Leonie Cooper AM: Thank you very much, Chair. I am very pleased to see everyone here this morning. In your introductory remarks, Tom, you were talking about mental health, you were talking about cardiac health, and you were talking about child health, and we have just been touching on the health of older people as well. One of the innovative, and it...

• Question by: Hina Bokhari OBE
• Meeting date: 05 June 2025

Len Duvall AM (Chair): Assembly Member Bokhari. Hina Bokhari AM: Thank you. I just want to pick up on the previous question on free school meals. The Liberal Democrats are incredibly pleased that there is an extension to free school meals, particularly for those in poverty. This is a victory for our party as well as other campaigners, but we do hope that the Mayor will look into auto-enrolling all eligible pupils.

• Question by: Alessandro Georgiou
• Meeting date: 05 June 2025

Len Duvall AM (Chair): Assembly Member Georgiou. Alessandro Georgiou AM: Thank you and good morning, panel. Dr Coffey, in your professional opinion, both in your current role as an adviser and as a GP, would you say that parks and green spaces are important for mental and physical well-being?

• Question by: Marina Ahmad
• Meeting date: 05 June 2025

Len Duvall AM (Chair): Can I welcome you back to the London Assembly question and answer session on the Mayor’s Health Inequality Strategy. The panel has now been joined by Dr Leyla Hannbeck, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Independent Pharmacies Association, welcome to the meeting. Then let us continue with our questioning, I am going to ask Assembly Member Ahmad for a question. Marina Ahmad AM: Thank you, Chair. Good morning, panel. Dr Coffey, has the Mayor’s groundbreaking universal free school meals (UFSM) policy helped advance the goals of his Health Inequality Strategy in London?

• Question by: Alex Wilson
• Meeting date: 05 June 2025

Len Duvall AM (Chair): We will go to Assembly Member Wilson and then after that contribution we will have a short break. Alex Wilson AM: Thank you, Chair. My first question will be to you, Dr Coffey, if that is OK. A little while ago I submitted a written question to the Mayor asking about the northeast London Physician Response Unit, which was a unit which provided home emergency medical care for acutely unwell patients and basically avoided the need to take those patients to A&E with the additional cost and stress and grief that that entails. Unfortunately, the funding...

• Question by: Caroline Russell
• Meeting date: 05 June 2025

Len Duvall AM (Chair): We will pick them up in exchanges of correspondence because it is an interesting debate you started. OK, Assembly Member Russell finally. Caroline Russell AM: Thank you. Thank you very much, Chair. My commiserations to Kevin Fenton and a lot of my questions were going to be directed to him. I am going to need you to slightly work out who to field, who to take things up. I will start with Tom and it is a question about access to toilets. You will be well aware I hope that I and many others think that...

• Question by: Emma Best
• Meeting date: 05 June 2025

Len Duvall AM (Chair): Assembly Member Best. Emma Best AM: Thank you. Tom, can I ask, what are the extent of your representations to the Government around the cancellation of the hospital building plan for London?

• Question by: Gareth Roberts
• Meeting date: 05 June 2025

Len Duvall AM (Chair): Let us move to Assembly Member Roberts. Gareth Roberts AM: Thank you, Chair and good morning. I was surprised to read in the Mayor’s Health Inequalities Implementation Plan that it completely fails to mention social care, which is a critical enabler in supporting people to live independently, enables health reform and prevents ill health. With long waiting lists and one in seven older people facing care costs of over £100,000, quality care is inaccessible for many. Therefore, (a) do you consider this is an oversight within the report and (b) what impact do you think the...

• Question by: Krupesh Hirani
• Meeting date: 05 June 2025

Len Duvall AM (Chair): Thank you for that. That was useful background information to the questions that we have raised. In terms of that, we are now going to go to the political groups. We are going to take it in turns. The order of the first four questions will be Assembly Member Hirani, then Assembly Member Roberts, and then Assembly Member Best, and then finally Assembly Member Russell. Let us take the first question from Assembly Member Hirani. Krupesh Hirani AM: Thank you, Chair. I am going to turn to Vicky for an answer on this one. The new...

• Reference: 2025/3225
• Question by: Len Duvall OBE
• Meeting date: 05 June 2025

We can now move on to our main business of this morning, our question and answer session. Joining us here in the Chamber, we have Dr Tom Coffey OBE, Senior Health Policy Adviser to the Mayor, who is going to be staying with us a little bit longer, depending on any issues that may arise, because I thought we might just have Tom for about an hour. Sadly, we have received apologies from Professor Kevin Fenton, who is the Statutory Health Adviser to the Mayor. Kevin has had a bereavement. On behalf of the Assembly, we would wish to pass...