• Question by: Darren Johnson
• Meeting date: 08 September 2005

If their input is going to be meaningful, it cannot be after the contracts have been let, and the horse has bolted, as it were. It also cannot just be producing more imaginative, visionary statements that do not translate into practical reality on the ground.

• Question by: Joanne McCartney
• Meeting date: 08 September 2005

This is a question to Mary (Reilly). It is about the training and employment framework that you have mentioned already. I recently visited Canary Wharf, where a training centre was set up on site by the Canary Wharf Group with the Universities & Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) and with Lewisham College, which seems to me to be an excellent example of good practice about how workers who have low skills can go on site and, during working hours, get that extra help they need. I know that UCAS is pressing for a similar site to be set up in the...

• Question by: Dee Doocey
• Meeting date: 08 September 2005

Thank you. My concern is that your response is also filled with words like `initiatives' and `best practice.' I am just thinking from the point of view of SMEs, small building companies basically, which have to comply ' and I understand why ' with all the relevant details of the Contract and Procurement Code. For example, they have to show adherence to sustainable construction practices. They have to adopt a suitable supply-chain procurement policy, and they have to apply sustainable management techniques for energy, waste, and water. That is before they put their name on the top of the form...

• Question by: Bob Blackman
• Meeting date: 08 September 2005

If the contracts are let on a competitive basis across the European Union, what is going to be put in place to force those firms ' whoever gets those contracts ' to employ local people, or can they bring in people from all over Europe to do this work?

• Question by: Dee Doocey
• Meeting date: 08 September 2005

Fine, but just can you please tell us about it, because if I do not know, what chance is there that local builders know? Can I just make one final point: speed is of the essence. The Construction Industry Training Board estimate that 88,000 recruits are needed over the next five years ' not in 10 years' time, but over the next five years. You need to get your act together, and you need to get your act together now. Bob Blackman (AM): To build on those questions: the International Olympic Committee (IOC) had a key concern, which was the...

• Question by: Dee Doocey
• Meeting date: 08 September 2005

I am terribly sorry to interrupt you, but the problem is you are probably not aware that the longer you speak, the less time I have.

• Question by: Dee Doocey
• Meeting date: 08 September 2005

I know. I am not saying that you are not going to write wonderful strategy papers saying how marvellously the whole thing will work. What I am actually looking for is for you to talk to people, talk to London companies, and engage in debate with them. It is the same thing; it is the blue-sky thinking, the strategies, but where is the action?

• Question by: Mike Tuffrey
• Meeting date: 08 September 2005

Just on this code, the very welcome offer: does it currently cover sustainable development issues and the other sorts of issues around wages, labour rights, and so forth?

• Question by: Darren Johnson
• Meeting date: 08 September 2005

Just on that point about the sustainability issues within the procurement document: will contracts be independently appraised before they are let, say, by the London Sustainable Development Commission (LSDC) or something like that?

• Question by: Darren Johnson
• Meeting date: 08 September 2005

That sounds reassuring, because obviously, we want to prevent profiteering, and we want to prevent these big companies moving in and just profiteering without actually putting anything into the event or into the long term. However, in terms of the way the legislation that Peter (Hulme Cross) has shown me is being drafted, it does seem to imply that certain words would be banned in certain combinations. I am all for making sure that Nike or whoever cannot profiteer from this event, but if the local café wants to run an Olympics event night or something like that, I do...