• 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...

• Question by: Sally Hamwee
• Meeting date: 20 November 2002

My colleague, Jenny Tonge, who piloted the original bill, tells met hat the divers were getting very irritated that it was taking so long. And one of the things, of course, that they wanted to see, and I think the public want to see, is a way of knowing, by looking at the cab, that it is licensed, looking at the car. There's something on the outside on the livery. I know this has exercised you but what progress is being made in seeing that this can be achieved?

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

So, by 17 February next year, every mini-cab driving into central London will be able to get an exemption from the congestion charge, whether or not they're on mini-cab business?

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

But currently, mini-cabs are not licensed, mini-cab drivers are not licensed. I'd be delighted if today you're announcing that if, by some means, you are going to give them interim recognition, so they can be exempted, but I think otherwise, this is a very big problem for London.