• Question by: Navin Shah
• Meeting date: 11 November 2009

hank you, Chair. Quite rightly you identified budget as one of the key challenges. May I first of all ask you, in terms of the vision and where the Authority goes, since recently taking control - which could prove to be a short period but that is another debate altogether - what instructions have you given to the Commissioner and senior officers for any change of direction that you may be seeking?

• Question by: Joanne McCartney
• Meeting date: 11 November 2009

I think the Audit Commission raised some of the issues with regard to this as well.

• Question by: Roger Evans
• Meeting date: 11 November 2009

Chairman, an excellent authority will have an excellent budget setting process. It was somewhat confused last year, I felt, and I wondered if you had any plans to streamline and improve the budget setting process and if perhaps you would learn any lessons from the previous performance of London boroughs, particularly boroughs in north west London?

• Question by: Murad Qureshi
• Meeting date: 11 November 2009

The Commissioner, rightly, made reference to the tragic events in Camberwell. I wanted to hear how you propose to deal with fire risks of aging tall buildings prone to fire.

• Question by: Kit Malthouse
• Meeting date: 11 November 2009

I wanted to welcome and congratulate you for your new approach to public consultation. As somebody who, on the other side of the fence as a councillor, was completely taken by surprise during the closure of the Manchester Street and Manchester Square Fire Station, by the then Labour controlled Authority, it comes pretty ill to hear them now complaining about your very open and transparent approach towards your future plans. So I welcome that. I wanted to ask you, in terms of priorities, about the Olympics and what work you will be doing around cost and finance as you approach...

• Question by: Caroline Pidgeon
• Meeting date: 11 November 2009

I wanted to pick up on the issue of the budget and ask the Chairman, will you be proposing to the Mayor another rise in LFEPA's take on the precept this year?

• Question by: Steve O'Connell
• Meeting date: 11 November 2009

Sir Paul, and the Mayor, but Sir Paul particularly - you remember, round about this time last year was a particularly difficult time and a tragic time when we lost many young people to tragic murders. I had three in Croydon in three weeks. I remember, round about this time last year, attending the funeral of Oliver Kingonzila. However, a year on, I think it would be remiss if we did not give some congratulations to your efforts about the reduction in teen murders this year, and murders generally. I think it would be remiss if we missed this opportunity...

• Question by: Joanne McCartney
• Meeting date: 11 November 2009

I wanted to ask Sir Paul about Metropolitan Police Service partners because I believe about 1,000 officers, currently on the streets, are paid for by our partners; Transport for London (TfL) and local authorities. We have had, recently, TfL not continuing with one of the partnership agreements. In this time of belt tightening it could be that local authorities are going to be looking as well. I am just wondering what resilience there is in the Metropolitan Police Service if other partners withdraw. Will those officer numbers be retained?

• Question by: Steve O'Connell
• Meeting date: 11 November 2009

Sir Paul, in a few weeks' time we will be heading towards the Christmas and the New Year festive season and, as you know, as in previous years, this has placed a huge strain on the resources around excessive alcohol incidents in the night time economy and, in my constituency, I have the largest night time economy outside the West End. What plans are afoot and what steer are you giving to your borough commanders to address this seasonal problem?

• Question by: James Cleverly
• Meeting date: 11 November 2009

This is probably more a question aimed at the Commissioner. My friend and colleague, Roger [Evans], has already highlighted one of the regular concerns expressed by outer London boroughs, which is the balance of police numbers compared with some of the inner London boroughs. Linked to that is the effect that abstractions have on the outer London boroughs. Within Met Forward are there any plans to look at impact assessment for abstractions, particularly as we move towards, in the next couple of years, a number of very large and very high profile public order policing events; Jubilee, the Olympics etc...