• Question by: Jennette Arnold OBE
• Meeting date: 14 November 2007

Mr Mayor, do you share my concerns about the possible damage that this discussion might be having on these organisations that are ' a number of them ' well in an advanced stage of their work, because they have not had any funding for the last two years from the LDA? One of them that you mentioned, Laban, is out there and is a reputable organisation doing a vital piece of work. If you agree that there is damage, can you yourself, or through your Office, ask the LDA to write to these organisations immediately and give a full explanation...

• Question by: Bob Blackman
• Meeting date: 14 November 2007

The clear issue from the Assembly's perspective, I think you will appreciate, is we started asking questions about these projects almost a year ago. We asked the LDA to produce specific evidence. They attended a scrutiny meeting and were singularly unable or unwilling to answer questions, which led us then to commission these particular reviews of these projects. Then, on Monday, they turn up to the Committee and say, 'There is a lot of other information that we could have given you but we chose not to', to paraphrase. Do you think we are right then to be concerned about...

• Question by: Bob Blackman
• Meeting date: 14 November 2007

Mr Mayor, we are not talking about these projects making profits; we are talking about the expenditure, under your auspices, of £13 million worth of public money from the LDA. Now the issue is, is that money being usefully used and is it being controlled in how it is being spent? The key issue for you as Mayor is to say whether you are satisfied or not that proper project control is being exercised over these projects.

• Question by: Bob Blackman
• Meeting date: 14 November 2007

Mr Mayor, I think, frankly, you have missed the point here. The key issue is not about the success of these projects or the failure; the issue that we have been looking at as an Assembly is the controls that the LDA exercise over expenditure. The report that has been produced by the Assembly, which we have then had checked by Deloitte to make sure that the findings are reasonable, points out that there is a lack of project control, a lack of accountability for financial decisions being made, that changes are being made to expenditure levels without proper approvals...

• Question by: Bob Blackman
• Meeting date: 14 November 2007

Finally, Mr Mayor, are you content with the way that project management is run under the LDA?

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 14 November 2007

Chair, the Mayor has covered most of the points I wanted to cover. For the record, I am the Deputy Chairman of the London Development Agency. For the record also I think all of these projects were initiated before I became a Board Member of the London Development Agency, but I am very happy to stand behind every single one of them. These are somewhat leading questions but would you agree with me - because it forms an important part of the record - that something approaching 500,000 people in London are employed in leisure, hospitality and cultural arts type...

• Question by: Darren Johnson
• Meeting date: 14 November 2007

A few months ago you did say that the sustainability criteria and projects for the Olympics needed more work and were not as ambitious as you would like to see but obviously there were question marks over the Budget at that stage. Are you confident that things are heading in the right direction and have you seen the improvements that you asked for from the ODA?

• Question by: Darren Johnson
• Meeting date: 14 November 2007

When we had the ODA in to the Assembly's Environment Committee meeting we clearly saw there had been improvements in the proposed standards and benchmarks and so on. However, we still did not think they were as ambitious as they possibly could be, but we were led to believe that these targets could be exceeded and that we might be extremely pleasantly surprised. Are we to expect the ODA targets to be exceeded in various areas?

• Question by: Bob Neill
• Meeting date: 14 November 2007

So you would use your veto?

• Question by: Bob Neill
• Meeting date: 14 November 2007

There has been some report that the Budget Secretariat at Canary Wharf may be replaced by some civil servants working out of Whitehall. Are you aware of that and, given your previous views, would you oppose any move of that kind?