• Question by: Elizabeth Howlett
• Meeting date: 12 June 2002

Mr Fletcher, you have said you are solely, personally accountable to the Mayor. You've also said that when you've taken over the reins of power from the Mayor, you're accountable and responsible to the Assembly. I want to ask you one or two questions. First of all, the Mayor, of course, gives us a report on what he has been doing, but you didn't give us a report on what you had been doing when you took over the reins of power from the Mayor. I'd also like to ask what preparation the Mayor did for you. Is he responsible...

• Question by: Eric Ollerenshaw
• Meeting date: 12 June 2002

So when he's swimming off a beach in Australia, then he is still running London from 10,000 miles away, as far as is practically possible?

• Question by: Graham Tope
• Meeting date: 12 June 2002

Is that public information, or can it be public information?

• Question by: Graham Tope
• Meeting date: 12 June 2002

That was not quite the question, really. I have no problem about advisors giving advice. I am more interested in who makes the decisions. Has the Mayor, or do you envisage the Mayor ever would and, if so, under what circumstances, publicly disagreed with a decision which you have taken in his name?

• Question by: Brian Coleman
• Meeting date: 12 June 2002

I'm told the Mayor's office has told the Foreign Office that he has certain countries he wants to concentrate on. Is that true?

• Question by: Victor Anderson
• Meeting date: 12 June 2002

Would you accept that it is important that the policies in the environment strategies which have planning implications get fully reflected in the draft London Plan? Do you think that's important?

• Question by: Victor Anderson
• Meeting date: 12 June 2002

In your opening statement when you set out your responsibilities you said that you have some responsibility for ensuring consistency between the different policies that the Mayor adopts and in ironing out any problems about that consistency. Does that include problems about potential inconsistencies between the draft London Plan and the environmental strategies?

• Question by: Brian Coleman
• Meeting date: 12 June 2002

Can I explore the issue of diary management? Yesterday I attended the launch of the "Don"t Choke Britain" campaign in Covent Garden, which I believe the Mayor was expected at and couldn"t attend at the last minute. The Deputy Mayor was certainly expected and the organisers were extremely upset when she failed to appear. I recognise that diary management must be a nightmare, but what's your first priority when setting the Mayor's diary?

• Question by: Andrew Pelling
• Meeting date: 12 June 2002

Why are you so reticent in talking about the quality of the political advice that you're giving?

• Question by: Andrew Pelling
• Meeting date: 12 June 2002

I will respectfully put it to you that if you're acting as the Mayor, it is a matter of interest to Londoners. If they were going to have Mr Livingstone running again in the future, they might like to know whether the person running the shop when he is away is somebody from the far left or from the political mainstream. People can then make their political judgement, whether they want to vote for somebody like that, can't they?