• Question by: Murad Qureshi
• Meeting date: 17 January 2007

I just wanted to go into the whole area of possible exposure to hedge funds, and what that may mean for our pension holders. Both directly and indirectly, our exposure to the derivative market is of concern to a lot of people, given how much coverage it gets in the business pages.

• Question by: Mike Tuffrey
• Meeting date: 17 January 2007

So if you have an approach or a strategy around engagement on these sorts of issues, is that in the public domain? Again, I could not find if you are engaging, which is the right strategy, what you are actually engaging on. And if you do not, will you promise to put that in the public domain?

• Question by: Mike Tuffrey
• Meeting date: 17 January 2007

Thank you, and I welcome you and thank you for coming. This is an important topic if not one that the media particularly get very excited about. This question is all about socially responsible, ethical investment, and you will be aware that there is quite a debate as to whether there is a choice to be made between returns and ethics. My own view and what is behind this question is that if one is positively engaging - which is, I think, what your strategy is - then the two agendas come together, because the long term sustainable return is...

• Question by: Jenny Jones
• Meeting date: 17 January 2007

Judging from your answers, some of the information I have here that I was going to ask you about is completely erroneous, and I am going to be delighted if you tell me I am completely wrong. I would like to follow on from my colleague Mike's [Tuffrey] excellent line of questioning on openness. The feeling is generally that there is not as much openness from you as there are from other companies who have got the same sort of ethical and socially responsible stance. Can I clarify; you commented on the voting record, however my understanding is that although...

• Question by: Mike Tuffrey
• Meeting date: 17 January 2007

Then I would like to conclude by pushing you to go further and to be public with people like us and, indeed, the 70,000 contributors so that in things that, as it were, I get, I can see you living out what you say your policy is, which is in the question, that you are progressively improving over time. Currently, I do not see that, and I think you should.

• Question by: Jenny Jones
• Meeting date: 17 January 2007

You can see from the questions that you have been asked today this is clearly a hot topic for us, and also, as politicians, we are very concerned about the issue of openness and the public knowing. So far this aspect has not been in the annual report, that is other information that I have. Is that not true? This is something you bring in to the annual report or is it simply that it is the first time you have had it so it has not happened yet?

• Question by: Peter Hulme Cross
• Meeting date: 13 December 2006

This is a case of the pot calling the kettle black because the EU has not had its accounts signed off for the last 12 years, and yet they have the effrontery to complain about our accounts. Does this have any effect on, say, the LDA's budget or the boroughs' budgets?

• Question by: Peter Hulme Cross
• Meeting date: 13 December 2006

You said, in the last question, we should rely on statistics and fact, rather than emotion. That is true also of our membership of the EU. If it is of benefit to London, you should be able to demonstrate, factually, why and how much?

• Question by: Peter Hulme Cross
• Meeting date: 13 December 2006

The peace and stability to our continent has been brought about by the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), not by the European Union (EU), which came into being much later. As regards the cost/benefit analysis, the figures have not been collated. There is no proper government issued cost/benefit analysis of membership. There is an attempt to do it here, by an organisation called The Bruges Group, which comes out with a figure of £52.4 billion per year cost to the UK. That is about £100,000 per minute. If you think those figures are wrong then there should be a proper...

• Question by: Peter Hulme Cross
• Meeting date: 13 December 2006

There is an enormous trade deficit with the EU. We buy an awful lot from them than they buy from us. That is a matter of fact.