• Question by: Bob Neill
• Meeting date: 20 February 2008

I assume that suspension actually ought to stem from some evidence of misconduct and I would like to know what the evidence of misconduct is? If so, it would be very helpful to have it on the record. I was grateful to hear your support for post office closures. A lot of us would have been much more impressed if you had made the same support in relation to the previous round of post office closures which closed a number of Crown Post Offices, and the round before that about two years ago; both of which you were remarkably silent...

• Question by: Jenny Jones
• Meeting date: 20 February 2008

That sounds slightly as if you are sitting on the fence, because you are saying you want to streamline these procedures but at the same time we have to keep the safeguards. If you are saying that then clearly you understand that this could have a detrimental impact on some local communities. Are you going to be quite vigorous in lobbying the Government for really good safeguards and, if you are going to, why not keep the ones we have at the moment?

• Question by: Jenny Jones
• Meeting date: 20 February 2008

In some ways that is true but, at the same time, these safeguards were brought in because local ethnic minority communities perceived that they were stopped disproportionately. When we had these safeguards brought in it was obvious that they were absolutely right. It might be that these safeguards have perhaps redressed the balance slightly. What is to stop a streamlined system allowing further abuse, ie that ethnic minority communities get stopped much more again?

• Question by: Jenny Jones
• Meeting date: 20 February 2008

I am just very concerned because of your belief in the reformed police, which is still extremely unbalanced in terms of its representation from London's communities. What percentage of women does it have now? Is it beyond 17% now? The point is we do not yet have a representative police force, and yet you are expecting them to make the right judgements for themselves because we will not have these safeguards. I think you are over-optimistic about the police that we have at the moment.

• Question by: Jenny Jones
• Meeting date: 20 February 2008

From whom are you taking advice on this?

• Question by: Roger Evans
• Meeting date: 20 February 2008

What about the work which was done on the Waterloo and City Line which was a Metronet major project and still suffers from signal failures? Will London Underground need to go back and look at that?

• Question by: Roger Evans
• Meeting date: 20 February 2008

One of my constituents raised this with you at the People's Question Time, which we both remember fondly, at Ilford. You said to her at the time, 'I will come back to you with specific details of the signalling system on the Waterloo and City Line' and you have not yet. Will you undertake to do that and let the Assembly Transport Committee have a copy as well?

• Question by: Roger Evans
• Meeting date: 20 February 2008

With respect, that is a different answer to the one you gave on the night at Ilford. I appreciate it might be difficult to recollect what happened there with so much time since the meeting took place.

• Question by: Roger Evans
• Meeting date: 20 February 2008

There has been some criticism of the quality of work carried out by Metronet. Can you tell us if there is any work which you are going to have to go back over and redo?

• Question by: Darren Johnson
• Meeting date: 20 February 2008

That is very encouraging in terms of a way forward. I would have thought with the ridiculous way this contract was arranged and the fact that the Liberal Democrats were among the many voices opposing the PPP in the first place ' and indeed ran as Liberal Democrats against Tube privatisation when they first stood for the Assembly ' that they would be welcoming the opportunities of the collapse of the Metronet contract.