• Question by: Toby Harris
• Meeting date: 19 November 2003

Do you agree that this just demonstrates that, despite all their noisy rhetoric, both the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives are in fact soft on crime?

• Question by: Richard Barnes
• Meeting date: 19 November 2003

I have always supported a national database for DNA and I believe that my party would as well, had there been a proper and full debate about it. But I believe that Lord Harris is being disingenuous and you are displaying a certain amount of ignorance this morning. It is the Criminal Justice Bill to start with, not the Crime and Disorder Bill. It was lost by 29 votes, the not contents were 130 and the contents were 101, so I am sure it could be brought back into the House of Commons where there is a majority of Socialists...

• Question by: Toby Harris
• Meeting date: 19 November 2003

Are you aware that in those police stations where there have been rapid systems to get fingerprint identification, to get DNA identification it has had a noticeable effect on the way in which those who are detained respond. What they are starting to say is once they know that their identity will be properly identified and it will be clear to the police who they actually are, as opposed to who they say they are, they are then admitting both their identity and also their involvement in a series of previous offences.

• Question by: Lynne Featherstone
• Meeting date: 19 November 2003

So, you agree that we should have this debate?

• Question by: Lynne Featherstone
• Meeting date: 19 November 2003

But if they are not charged and if they are not guilty, you are creeping into very dodgy territory.

• Question by: Lynne Featherstone
• Meeting date: 19 November 2003

Simon (Hughes) was promoted to London spokesperson. But I think you debase the argument about letting rapists off. This is a very serious debate about civil liberties and DNA. There may be some very good things around DNA but the proposal was to keep on record the DNA, regardless of whether the person was charged or not. So that is an important issue. Do you not think that there are civil liberties at the heart, of this, that if the government really believes there is a case for having every citizen DNAed or everyone who is picked up DNAed, that...

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 19 November 2003

I welcome the comments that were made last week by Jay Walder (Managing Director of Finance and Planning for Transport for London). I do not know whether you are able to add anything to these about the prudential borrowing regime, which is being introduced. It is a very boring subject on the face of it, but it does give far greater flexibility to city government. Do you welcome that? Do you envisage it being used flexibly to help develop London's transport, sooner rather than later?

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 19 November 2003

This is in danger of being too easy as perhaps is the question. I am not always your greatest fan. There are elements of your transport bid that I am unhappy about, for instance, the prioritisation within it. But broadly, myself and I think my Labour colleagues support the bid you are making to Government. There needs to be some give and take in this, of course, because the Government which we tend to support on this side of the Chamber is going through a difficult spending round at present and we may not get the jam today. You may...

• Question by: Lynne Featherstone
• Meeting date: 19 November 2003

I quite agree, I change tubes there twice a day. I agree with you. All I am saying is, it is part of that budget.

• Question by: Lynne Featherstone
• Meeting date: 19 November 2003

Camden Tube redevelopment is one of the things that could go if you do not get any money, is it not? On Val's (Shawcross) Underground question, can you establish the nature of the closure because at the Elephant and Castle they were due to re-open last July and they are still not open. So, can we have a confirmed length of closure and can we know what guarantees are in place and what penalties if it is not open within a contracted time? What seems to happen is you start something and they never finish and then it is the...