• Question by: Len Duvall OBE
• Meeting date: 10 December 2003

• Question by: Sally Hamwee
• Meeting date: 10 December 2003

The question was about the structural model.

• Question by: Lynne Featherstone
• Meeting date: 10 December 2003

Going back to the increased need for funding and the question of who pays if services are expanded. I think we have noticed here at the Assembly that if we put something in our budget like resilience the Government then does not fund it; the same with the income from Congestion Charging and local grants. Of course, now London funds many of the extra police officers and the Government has rewarded us with a £56 million deduction in our grant. Would Toby Harris agree that the Government cannot have it both ways as we discussed yesterday? They cannot claim credit...

• Question by: Len Duvall OBE
• Meeting date: 10 December 2003

• Question by: Len Duvall OBE
• Meeting date: 10 December 2003

• Question by: Diana Johnson
• Meeting date: 10 December 2003

I would like to ask about the proposals to transfer serious crime out of the Met into a national police force and about the issues around recruitment and retention that might bring. What is your feeling about how Londoners might respond to feeling that they do not have a say in the policing of serious crime in their communities?

• Question by: Len Duvall OBE
• Meeting date: 10 December 2003

But surely even with an expanded service those tensions will still exist between pulling the staff out into central functions even if they are ring-fenced for neighbourhood services.

• Question by: Roger Evans
• Meeting date: 10 December 2003

Far be it for me to make a political point of this, Chair, I was merely asking if you could hold the Government to a promise that they have made, and you have not given that commitment.

• Question by: Roger Evans
• Meeting date: 10 December 2003

That is a very positive comment, but you will be concerned to learn that people are complaining that a year after it was announced, that particular helpline is not yet up and running. Chair, can I enlist the help of the MPA to push for this Government promise to be honoured? Because if the Government cannot keep its promise to the most vulnerable people in society then the rest of us have something to worry about.

• Question by: Jenny Jones
• Meeting date: 10 December 2003

So you feel that the one-stop shop idea is the best way forward at the moment?