• Question by: Darren Johnson
• Meeting date: 10 October 2001

Lynne and Sally both went into issues following the dreadful events in New York so I don't want to go over the same ground but, in terms of air crashes, what procedures are in place for dealing with an air crash in London?

• Question by: Darren Johnson
• Meeting date: 10 October 2001

Does that mean you don't have any sort of liaison or dialogue with the Civil Aviation Authority over such issues?

• Question by: Sally Hamwee
• Meeting date: 10 October 2001

Can I just ask you a short question on that, Val? Those of us who have been borough councillors are not only aware of the emergency planning procedures at local level but, in many cases, have seen the detail of that (and I felt very sick when I read a report of a simulated exercise of a plane coming down about 40 yards from where I live). But I understand that it is not actually a statutory duty for the boroughs to have emergency plans. Do you think it should be?

• Question by: Darren Johnson
• Meeting date: 10 October 2001

Are there obvious lessons to be learned from New York? I know there's been practical support offered by the London Fire service which is obviously to be very welcome to New York. But are there lessons to be learned and will the Fire Authority be working with the New York Fire Authorities to look at lessons to be learned from those events?

• Question by: Meg Hillier
• Meeting date: 10 October 2001

I'm sure that many of us round this table would be happy to apply any political pressure that you might feel would be useful on that, because there are extraneous circumstances in this case. I'm heartened by what George Barlow said about robust financial measures in general, because I think this is something that will be of real concern to people out there on the ground who are losing out. Can I move on and pick up a little bit on the same point really, about the split that exists in London between economic development and social regeneration. The LDA...

• Question by: Meg Hillier
• Meeting date: 10 October 2001

I think we all appreciate the constraints of the SRB project and look forward to the new unveiling of the 'single pot'. What representations have you been making to Government? Because this is £10 million that Londoners will not get spent on them, as you say, unless you can come to a deal with Government. Is there any prospect of that and what discussions are you having?

• Question by: Meg Hillier
• Meeting date: 10 October 2001

• Question by: Meg Hillier
• Meeting date: 10 October 2001

It just seemed odd to me that I discovered that you were doing this internal review when I read the audit report, which was at the same time that you wrote to me, but it wasn't mentioned. I think we've hopefully all learned from this and clearly we will now rush to get to LDA parties, even if they improve " there wasn"t much on offer for £280 a head, I can tell you. Moving on to more substantial part of the budget, the bit that really affects ordinary Londoners - and I think there was a regrettable incident there...

• Question by: Meg Hillier
• Meeting date: 10 October 2001

Can I say I am very happy to see the audit report? I have to say I never actually received my own copy, even though I asked the question originally. I was given a copy by a member of the press. I'm glad we have a free press that somehow gets access to this information. But I was very delighted when the Chair, George Barlow, indicated early on that he was going to seek an internal audit. But this doesn't seem to square with the letter I received from the Chief Executive when I made the initial enquiry about how...

• Question by: Meg Hillier
• Meeting date: 10 October 2001

Thank you. I won't dwell on that -- we've already had a long discussion on this but I think that you might have picked up that perhaps the Assembly doesn't quite share your optimistic view about how open and accountable the LDA is. But we've heard what you have got to say and are pleased that you are keen to move it in what we would see as the right direction. Last, to focus on four quick points really and a chance to pursue a point that was raised earlier. Firstly, two on the budget. If I could just ask...