• Question by: Samantha Heath
• Meeting date: 23 May 2001

So you have £64 million for congestion charging, which spuriously is supposed to improve air quality - we all agree that it does not - and you are whingeing over £200,000 that would improve air quality for Londoners. The other point I want to make is that the boroughs - The Chair: Question, Sam. Samantha Heath: The boroughs desperately need guidance on how they can improve air quality, and the current LIPs do not identify how they can bid appropriately for money to improve air quality. Can you guarantee that proper guidance will be given to boroughs so that they...

• Question by: Samantha Heath
• Meeting date: 23 May 2001

Thank you very much. I want to nail this on the head. You said clearly in answer to some of the questions today that air quality in London can take as much as four years off your life. However, in your congestion charging strategy, the filthy diesels that belch out PM10s and nox are not going to be reduced. Therefore, if we are going to have a better air quality in London, we desperately need a low emissions strategy. The minutes of the last feasibility study group reveal a lot of spurious discussion about funding. Can you now guarantee that...

• Question by: Valerie Shawcross
• Meeting date: 12 December 2001

Would you therefore, Toby, be wanting to recommend a better framework for the future for consultation processes, one that actually avoided some of these pitfalls to make sure that there is actually a better process in future consultations. In particular I would have hoped that you might have a policy of freedom of information within the Authority because, although there was, as you say, some information given that was pretty inadequate, there were some key bits of information that were requested, such as the report that was done by PAC, which has never actually been released. Are you going to...

• Question by: Valerie Shawcross
• Meeting date: 12 December 2001

I certainly agree with your criticisms of the process and I would add the fact that, as far as I am aware, a number of other important organisations - the blue light organisations, the criminal justice system, the probation system, crime and disorder partnerships - were not consulted either. Can I ask you, did Graham Tope consult you at all about how to go about a consultation process on this issue?

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 23 May 2001

A very quick question - having a new and assertive Chair, Chair. You seem to do an awful lot of polling on a range of issues, and I cannot imagine that any of that could be construed as advice to the Mayor. That suggests that it should be published and made available to the Members of the Assembly, including presumably any political questions you might be asking.

• Question by: Trevor Phillips
• Meeting date: 23 May 2001

This is really a question about when we can see the information, so that we can get in the loop and start preparing our responses. When do you think we might be able to see this information? It is somewhere in the building.

• Question by: Trevor Phillips
• Meeting date: 23 May 2001

Thank you, Ken. Just picking up on the point that Bob Neill made, we know that you have been terrifically busy, but I wanted to say on behalf of the Member for Harrow, and for the people of Harrow, East, of whom I am one, how grateful we were for your welcome support for Tony McNulty, our MP, last week. In between these extremely important and worthy activities, I wonder whether you have found time to read the 4,000 or so letters that you received from the consultation since we last spoke - when you said you would lock yourself...

• Question by: Angie Bray
• Meeting date: 23 May 2001

I also wrote a letter to you, Mr Mayor, about six weeks ago, on precisely the same question that Toby Harris has put to you in his absence. I have also noticed that there is a real problem with this for you. You have refused to come before the Bus Scrutiny Committee to answer questions; you say that you can't because the questions are about contracts. But most of the questions are not about contracts, so that is information you are not providing. I also asked about six weeks for some information on your employment of Lord Rogers and a...

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 12 December 2001

The other final question then is - which is probably more interesting for Assembly Members - with Christmas coming and with the Home Secretary making statements about the potential threat to London, are you able to make any comment about our capacity to respond to such a threat, and contingencies that might have been made for it, in terms of police leave over Christmas and in terms of the ability to deploy people quickly from boroughs to the centre, for example?

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 12 December 2001

If I could have two other supplementaries, with your indulgence, Chair? The first then is to explore that tangent, as it were, and it is about the budget process we are entering into, where in order for us, as London, to judge ourselves against other budget settlements, it would be very helpful if we could better disentangle the national from the London policing priorities. Do you have a view on that, and whether that can be achieved to a greater extent under this Authority?