• Question by: Darren Johnson
• Meeting date: 26 February 2003

Londoners and people around the whole country are increasingly feeling that Blair is simply not listening to them. People went out on the March in their millions and yet Tony Blair said almost immediately after that that he wasn't going to listen to them. What can people do now, do you think, to try and make their voices heard?

• Question by: Jenny Jones
• Meeting date: 26 February 2003

There's talk about people coming out on strike for that. I know there are people in this building who would like to walk out in protest; would you be disciplining them if they do that?

• Question by: Sally Hamwee
• Meeting date: 26 February 2003

Thank you and thank you for your suggestion that we might jointly approach Capita. I take it then, that if we can find a way by which you could legally disclose information that we've been seeking about performance measures and so on, you would be happy for that to proceed.

• Question by: Roger Evans
• Meeting date: 26 February 2003

You talked earlier on about making improvements to the technology behind this scheme, perhaps in three years I think was the time scale you mentioned. Is that change built into the contract that you have with Capita now or are you going to have to make payments to them to change the equipment at that time, and will those payments include penalties for discontinuing the use of the current equipment?

• Question by: Bob Neill
• Meeting date: 26 February 2003

Are you aware that two constituents of mine both applied for blue badge discounts because they have to come up for chemotherapy treatment, one on a daily, one on a weekly basis, in November of last year? Neither received any satisfactory response in advance of the deadline. One was kept on the telephone for 1 hour 40 minutes by Capita operatives and then transferred to Coventry where they waited another 20 minutes to be told that their application couldn't be found. A second had to attempt five separate calls to speak to five separate Capita operatives to be told that...

• Question by: Angie Bray
• Meeting date: 26 February 2003

I want to talk about a group of people who have threatened to give Capita the hardest time they can, namely the Smithfield market traders. I handed in a letter on their behalf to your office on 17 February. I wonder whether you've had the courtesy of answering it yet.

• Question by: Sally Hamwee
• Meeting date: 26 February 2003

It may be a nice little earner for Capita too.

• Question by: Sally Hamwee
• Meeting date: 26 February 2003

the longer-term charge and whether it's wise to give commitments now. Finally, can I ask: you said that the copyright of the scheme belongs - do I understand it correctly? - jointly to TfL and Capita. If that is so, have London taxpayers paid for a benefit that is now in private hands?

• Question by: Sally Hamwee
• Meeting date: 26 February 2003

So, presumably, there are going to be issues about the cost of the service as against the income that is achieved. One would have to be quite careful about the long-term commitment about the level of charge.

• Question by: Meg Hillier
• Meeting date: 26 February 2003

I won't go into the details of the case but, as you know, I have a similar case of a constituent who had poor service from Capita. They even got her address wrong and told her she didn't qualify for a discount; it's one of those hard cases. There seems to be no system in Capita for dealing with the hard cases. Even with your personal assurance that it would be dealt with personally by your office I have still not had a response. We are now a week and a half into the congestion charge and this woman has...