• Question by: Peter Hulme Cross
• Meeting date: 10 October 2006

Yes, it is purely speculative but clearly there is a concern there and it would be quite contrary to the spirit of the Games to have a separation for certain groups within the complex, would it not?

• Question by: Peter Hulme Cross
• Meeting date: 10 October 2006

In the negotiations, the IOC would seem to be in the dominant position. They seem to hold the cards, to me.

• Question by: Dee Doocey
• Meeting date: 10 October 2006

Just to say Paul, thank you very much for the clear explanation about the £1.5 billion versus £2 billion. I think this is the first time we have ever got a clear answer to any financial question about the Olympics. It is a great shame that the Sports Minister did not seem to even know that or he was not properly briefed when he answered the same question in Parliament and did not do it properly. What I would like to know though, you say the overlay budget is going to be recast and I understand all the reasons why...

• Question by: Bob Blackman
• Meeting date: 10 October 2006

The cost of the security included in the bid was relatively low compared to what we spent, for example, at Athens, and as we know the world has become probably an even more dangerous place than it was. Are you revisiting the cost of security in the budget process?

• Question by: Dee Doocey
• Meeting date: 10 October 2006

But if you found a major problem and there was £10 billion somewhere wrong, or whatever, it will not be kept as a great big secret? We will be told about it?

• Question by: Peter Hulme Cross
• Meeting date: 10 October 2006

If you are suddenly confronted with the need for extra security, and so your security bill goes up beyond expectations or perhaps your ticket sales do not live up to expectations and you have a shortfall, so you are left at the end of the day with a budget over-run, who covers it and can you give an absolute assurance that it will not be London council tax payers?

• Question by: Bob Blackman
• Meeting date: 10 October 2006

But are you content that the in-venue security budget is sufficient, given what you know now?

• Question by: Elizabeth Howlett
• Meeting date: 10 October 2006

Thank you. Just following on from that, I understand you have done your security budget, but there is another thing which is security checks of individuals. When you have 70,000 volunteers, you will have to get security checks on every one of them. Who is going to do that with the police? The police charge for it. It takes time. So, what are your arrangements for that?

• Question by: Mike Tuffrey
• Meeting date: 10 October 2006

My interest is less how you control the cost - I trust you to do that - more the sense of the risk analysis. Is finance, making sure the budget does end in balance, as it were, the biggest issue or are there specific other management issues?

• Question by: Mike Tuffrey
• Meeting date: 10 October 2006

I am trying to get some sense of the light and the dark, whether it is finance, whether it is security.