• Question by: Jenny Jones
• Meeting date: 15 October 2008

Finally, your Business Advisory Council met for the first time this month and I think we are all looking forward to finding out what went on. However, the Chair, [Sir] Martin Sorrell, his company has just relocated to Ireland. I am just curious; is he the right person to Chair that body if he has just abandoned London?

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 10 September 2008

John Biggs (AM): I have two other tiny questions about your appointments; the first is I think at the last Question Time you said you were bringing back into your office your decisions on planning matters - Can you tell us whether you have actually got round to doing this yet?

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 10 September 2008

John Biggs (AM): When did you last meet Mr Parker?

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 10 September 2008

John Biggs (AM): Final question then is about the pay of Deputy Mayors whom you have appointed who are, for example, Chairs or Deputy Chairs of functional bodies. Members of functional bodies who are Deputy Mayors and therefore your appointees. Could you make a clear statement, given your comments earlier today about budgets, about what you think are acceptable levels of pay for your appointees in those positions? Would you sanction massive hikes? If you found there was a war going on between your advisers to pay themselves increasing amounts would you frown upon that?

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 10 September 2008

Would you agree with the statement that so-called ethnic minorities together form a majority in boroughs such as Brent and Newham and that by the time the third world no longer wants to move to Britain, Britain will be a foreign land?

• Question by: Nicky Gavron
• Meeting date: 10 September 2008

Nicky Gavron (AM): Do you think that Conservative controlled boroughs will have more difficulty setting affordable housing targets than other boroughs?

• Question by: Roger Evans
• Meeting date: 10 September 2008

Roger Evans (AM): Can I also ask you about the budget for the Olympics because in recent years a blank cheque has been signed on the part of Londoners to pay for this project. It is good to see that you are holding it as a separate directorate and are going to keep a close eye on what is happening but clearly we need to make sure that, whilst we have a quality Games, we have a value for money Games and we do not saddle Londoners with debt for many years to come. I know many people have written...

• Question by: Roger Evans
• Meeting date: 10 September 2008

Roger Evans (AM): Can I also seek reassurance from you on the transport budget. Yesterday we had quite a productive and interesting meeting about the Cross River Tram but of course I think everyone there understood, particularly Professor Glaister who addressed the meeting, that it is a matter of priorities -Professor Stephen Glaister, former Member of the Board of TfL. Very much knew what he was talking about and gave a good presentation to the meeting. Some of the people there were suggesting there was a lot of money in the Crossrail budget and perhaps that could be raided to...

• Question by: Darren Johnson
• Meeting date: 10 September 2008

The Patience Wheatcroft review - and we have discussed this previously - did look at planning and environment posts and said that it was difficult to see how that level of overhead could be justified. However, Sir Simon Milton at the [Assembly's] Environment Committee meeting last week did make a very good point that the boroughs themselves could not be expected to have all that expertise in-house and, in terms of value for money, if you expected those teams to operate in 32 boroughs on that level of expertise would be far more expensive than having that core function here...

• Question by: Gareth Bacon MP
• Meeting date: 10 September 2008

At the Mayor's Question Time of July last year your predecessor, Mr Livingstone, remarked that the only way that he believed that the Thames Barrier would fail to protect the people of London from flooding would be, 'If someone has over indulged the night before and is asleep at the controls when the flood comes'. That is quite a reassuring statement and I hope very much that it is true. Do you agree with that view wholeheartedly and, if not, would you be prepared to consider additional flood defences in the future if necessary?