• Question by: Dee Doocey
• Meeting date: 18 March 2009

OK, you are very keen on academies. I am completely neutral on the subject, but the figures just do not stack up to me. There are 43 academies in London, and we have got published results for 27 of them, because a lot of them are new and have not yet published. Over 50% of them have achieved less than half the national average at GCSE (General Certificate of Secondary Education). What I am not clear about is a lot of these are run by some serious players. I mean, we are not just talking fly-by-nights; we really are talking...

• Question by: Richard Barnes
• Meeting date: 18 March 2009

If the LDA did act ultra vires, would you expect the lawyers and your auditors to bring it to your attention?

• Question by: Mike Tuffrey
• Meeting date: 18 March 2009

I think there would be huge scepticism on all sides of this Chamber and outside this Chamber that the LDA should be getting into funding secondary education. Mr Rogers, you started your answer by saying, 'I believe in the academy system.' Bluntly, what you believe or otherwise is of relevance to your advice to the Board, and I noted you did not answer the question. The question was, 'Has the Board yet considered whether funding secondary education is compatible with focusing on the LDA's core mission?' So can I ask the Chair of the Board to give us the Board...

• Question by: Jenny Jones
• Meeting date: 18 March 2009

This whole idea of giving money to academies was one of the Mayor's. He brought it up at a party conference - Tory Party conference - last year and it was also in his Time for Action, his report on youth violence. Now, I just cannot see how this is any different from all the accusations against Ken Livingstone [former Mayor of London]. This is an idea the Mayor has had. It is not part of the LDA's role. You have a role in skills and so on; you do not have a role in secondary education. I do not...

• Question by: Murad Qureshi
• Meeting date: 18 March 2009

Thank you, Chair. Just following on from Val [Shawcross] on the training programmes, the LDA have withdrawn the funding from King's Cross Construction Training Centre, and Camden Council has been forced to step in. Are you aware that the funding that Camden has been able to provide is less than that which was originally provided by the LDA? Secondly, how is possible to justify such cuts in skills training in an area of such acute economic deprivation, and given that King's Cross is a strategic site, why should it be just the people of Camden who fund the training centre...

• Question by: Dee Doocey
• Meeting date: 18 March 2009

OK, a couple of quick questions first. Can I just clarify, any money that is left over at the end of the year, can you carry that forward or does that go back to the Government?

• Question by: Roger Evans
• Meeting date: 18 March 2009

We have heard a lot this morning about plans to protect jobs and businesses in London from people in the Chamber, but can you tell me, have you got a view at the LDA about the Mayor's decision to suspend Phase 3 of the Low Emission Zone (LEZ)? Do you feel that has been helpful?

• Question by: Andrew Boff
• Meeting date: 18 March 2009

Mr McGrath, since the start of the Mayor's Economic Recovery Plan, unemployment nationally, we learned this morning, has increased by 0.5%, the largest amount for a dozen years, and now sits at 2 million. In London, unemployment has reduced by 0.1%. Could you let me know what advice you will be giving to the Government so that the rest of the country can benefit from Boris Johnson's jobs?

• Question by: Valerie Shawcross
• Meeting date: 18 March 2009

If I can just pick that up. I think Len [Duvall] mentioned earlier that there is an underspend this year at the LDA. Is that not the case? £25 million has been suggested in the paperwork, I think.

• Question by: James Cleverly
• Meeting date: 18 March 2009

Peter, the auditing of and the signing off of the 2007/08 accounts for the LDA was not an easy process. Could you briefly outline where the difficulties arose in that process, and what the Agency is doing to ensure that we do not have a similarly difficult process next year?