• Question by: Bob Neill
• Meeting date: 17 November 2004

Well, the question, of course, as you observed, was posed in terms of more police on the street, and you may be concerned that the Prime Minister's White Paper, in which you made so much, only talks about maintaining numbers. When you set that against the material made available to the Metropolitan Police Authority at the Budget Committee, which indicates that there is not enough money coming from Government to fund step change as envisaged, and that you either have to cut back the numbers or the people on the teams, how are you going to deal with that with...

• Question by: Bob Neill
• Meeting date: 17 November 2004

Given your answers earlier on, are you troubled at the passage in the White Paper Building Communities, Beating Crime, which was launched, in effect, on the day of the Prime Minister's visit to Welling that states that 'The Government is committed to maintaining officer numbers and increasing police overall strength through the use of community service officers.'? Have you raised with the Government the implication in that that there is unlikely to be any extra funding for sworn officers?

• Question by: Jennette Arnold OBE
• Meeting date: 17 November 2004

Given the differences happening in these communities - I do not know when you last saw them at first hand, but I would invite you to join me in visiting one of the neighbourhood teams at work within my constituency in the new year. Is that an offer that you could take up?

• Question by: Jennette Arnold OBE
• Meeting date: 17 November 2004

My follow-up question is I wonder if you could put an end to this myth that Conservative colleagues are frequently harping on about the alleged lack of benefits that outer London gets from its GLA precept. Thus, can you tell us to what extent is investment in neighbourhood policing skewed to inner London, and can you direct this answer to Mr (Tony) Arbour (AM)?

• Question by: Angie Bray
• Meeting date: 17 November 2004

Okay, thank you. That is what we need to know.

• Question by: Angie Bray
• Meeting date: 17 November 2004

You cannot is what you are saying.

• Question by: Angie Bray
• Meeting date: 17 November 2004

Can you actually undertake, guarantee to us now then, that your budget, when it comes early next year, will deliver to five wards per borough, the full quota that you promised in your step change?

• Question by: Tony Arbour
• Meeting date: 17 November 2004

No, Mr Mayor, I think you misunderstand your own policy. They get the same number in each neighbourhood. What I was questioning is where those Neighbourhood Police are going to come from, and what I am putting to you - and which is a fact - is that some of those police officers will be redeployed from jobs which they are already doing in those boroughs.

• Question by: Tony Arbour
• Meeting date: 17 November 2004

I am sure you will agree with me that this attempt to foment disputes between inner London boroughs and outer London boroughs is wholly unacceptable, because you are the Mayor for the whole of London. However, in that context, it is worth pointing out that the number of police officers in the London Borough of Hackney, which Jennette Arnold represents, actually increased by 15% between September 2003 and September 2004, whereas in one of the boroughs which I represent, Richmond upon Thames, the number of police actually fell in that period by 4%. Would not you also agree that your...

• Question by: Bob Neill
• Meeting date: 17 November 2004

You accept that, therefore, they declined under a Labour Government.