• Question by: Tony Arbour
• Meeting date: 20 November 2002

Given that the TOCU is paid for by all of the people of London, and you and the MPA, quite rightly, have been proud of their achievements in the relatively short time since they have been set up, isn't it rather sad that it is being implemented on the basis of routes, which are substantially in inner London, whereas the residents of outer London would like the benefits of the TOCU on the routes which go through their boroughs. In my three boroughs, I think I have one mile of route only, and wouldn't it be an appropriate thing for...

• Question by: Angie Bray
• Meeting date: 20 November 2002

As you have already heard from Tony, on this side certainly, we very much support the initiative, but I think we'd all have to agree that obviously they can't be everywhere, and it still is a little bit thin on the ground. And in view of that, I am wondering what you made of the recently published interview with the actress, Samantha Bond, who I think we're all shortly going to be seeing on our screens in the new James Bond film, as Miss Moneypenny, when she made the point, rather forcefully I felt, that many actresses like herself, and...

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 20 November 2002

My understanding is that each officer employed on the Transport Initiative is arresting considerably less than two people per month. Is that a reasonable figure?

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 20 November 2002

You say that you're going to have this independently appraised, which I think is a welcome concession by you, because you haven't offered that before, but at the same time you're bidding for money to expand the initiative next year. Can you justify that?

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 20 November 2002

Let's go back then. You have conceded you are going to have it independently assessed, which you haven't offered before, which is very welcome. I think you are implicitly recognising that the number of arrests per officer on this is almost certainly below the average you'd expect for active officers in the central London area and on busy routes. So, the question is, is it the right time to be expanding the initiative?

• Question by: Meg Hillier
• Meeting date: 20 November 2002

At £1.1 million -- in fact it says here now it would be raised at £1.9 million gross. You think that's acceptable per route, £1.9 million per route? Do you think that's an acceptable price to pay? How would you fund that?

• Question by: Meg Hillier
• Meeting date: 20 November 2002

You disagree with a report from your own Officers about the London bus 55 conductor experiment?

• Question by: Meg Hillier
• Meeting date: 20 November 2002

Right, okay. And yet in February you announced the Transport Policing Initiative, but you've only just received a report of the effect of the 55 bus conductor routes. So why did you effectively admit its failure and said you'd continue this very expensive project, up to 3 January next year?

• Question by: Meg Hillier
• Meeting date: 20 November 2002

: I'm talking about from Peter Hendy's team, the people who operate the buses, about how well this would deliver the objectives that you aimed to deliver.

• Question by: Roger Evans
• Meeting date: 20 November 2002

The mayor recognises you can effectively fake yourself over £1,200 by registering your car as a mini-cab to drive into London. It's a loophole that I drew to the attention of the Public Carriage Office several months ago, when I visited them. And their response was, "Oh, that"s a bit of a problem. We'll have to go away and think about it'. How are you going to make sure that we don't see an outburst, a huge number of extra mini-cabs registered, which drive in and out of the centre of town, but somehow magically never manage to pick up...