• Question by: Andrew Boff
• Meeting date: 23 May 2012

Andrew Boff (AM): Mr Mayor, I would be interested to know your instincts on things. Do you think that it is important that housing benefit should have been reformed to ensure that we do not subsidise people to live in the private sector on rents that other ordinary working families could not afford?

• Question by: Andrew Dismore
• Meeting date: 23 May 2012

Andrew Dismore (AM): Thank you, Chair. I have listened to what the Mayor had to say, because there are 1,300 fewer police officers now than there were when the Conservative Government came into office in 2010, but my question really is this: how many fully sworn police officers, excluding Specials, will there be in a year's time, and how many Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) will there be in a year's time?

• Question by: Steve O'Connell
• Meeting date: 23 May 2012

Steve O'Connell (AM): Chair, I am sure new Members will learn the discipline that is expected in this place. Turning back to police, I am sure Londoners, Mr Mayor, will be delighted that you have delivered this commitment of extra police. Would you not share with me the rather dismissive attitude of colleagues across the way around Specials? Under your leadership, you have doubled the number of Specials, and I think your plan includes increasing them up to 10,000. Specials play an important role, particularly in our evenings on Fridays and Saturday nights, Mr Mayor. Again, will you reinforce to...

• Question by: Roger Evans
• Meeting date: 23 May 2012

Roger Evans (AM): Mr Mayor, will the Transport for London Business Plan continue to promote Crossrail as one of its key elements?

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 23 May 2012

Darren Johnson (Deputy Chair): Assembly Member Biggs has a point of order. John Biggs (AM): The Chair told us there was a standing order about making assertions for which there was no evidence. Now, the Mayor has at the one time made an assertion for which he has evidence that he can cut council tax. Now he has made another assertion that on fares, he can make no such commitment. There is a fundamental inconsistency, it seems to me, under standing orders. Either one can be said and the other cannot, and either the both can be said or neither...

• Question by: Richard Tracey
• Meeting date: 23 May 2012

Richard Tracey (AM): Mr Mayor, during your first term, I do not recollect a single suggestion from the Labour group on how to make any savings in TfL. I do not know whether you will remember, but given all this talk that we heard during the election campaign about their fare cuts policy, would you like to invite a submission from them on how they see savings might be made in TfL in the future without slashing investment, which is of course exactly what we predicted they would do?

• Question by: Darren Johnson
• Meeting date: 23 May 2012

Darren Johnson (Deputy Chair): Yes, thank you, Chair. Mayor, one of your key pledges on Homes for Londoners was to end rough sleeping by the end of the year, so that no one spent a second night without a home out on the streets, yet the latest figures show a 31% increase in rough sleeping over the past year. Does your pledge still stand?

• Question by: Darren Johnson
• Meeting date: 23 May 2012

Darren Johnson (Deputy Chair): In the interests of transparency, Mayor, are you able to tell us whose idea it was to invite Keith Moon [deceased drummer from 'The Who'] to perform at the closing ceremony of the Olympics?

• Question by: Andrew Boff
• Meeting date: 23 May 2012

Andrew Boff (AM): Mr Mayor, can I ask you not to spend too much time modelling the transparency of your administration on the example of the Labour, Lib Dem and Green groups, whose idea of transparency is to hold secret meetings where movements of cash are promised in return for jobs and votes.

• Question by: Joanne McCartney
• Meeting date: 23 May 2012

Joanne McCartney (AM): Mr Mayor, I am going to return to a question I have asked you three times before, and in the spirit of transparency I am hoping that this time you will give a positive answer. So will you sign up the GLA to the United Kingdom (UK) Statistics Authority's code of practice for official statistics?