• Question by: Graham Tope
• Meeting date: 20 December 2000

Is the Mayor aware - clearly he is not - that the resource allocation formula to which Andrew Pelling is that used by the police service itself to allocate resources to the boroughs? He is clearly not aware that the MPA has agreed to review that formula, and I am one of the two MPA members carrying out that review. He is clearly not aware - this is answering Andrew Pelling's question which he should have answered - that the results of that review are intended to be in place in time to affect the allocations for the financial year...

• Question by: Lord Duvall of Woolwich in the Royal Borough of Greenwich OBE
• Meeting date: 20 December 2000

But it is not just about the Assembly - it is about the role of London boroughs. They have a crucial role in tackling crime. Although I recognise that the police are the main agency for tackling crime, they cannot do it alone. It seems to me that there was a better way of initiating that debate, by contacting various people and talking through the issues. One of the issues that would have come up if you had spoken to other people is this. The levels of policing that you are trying to achieve along with the MPA are laudable...

• Question by: Elizabeth Howlett
• Meeting date: 20 December 2000

We are publicly elected Members: should we not know?

• Question by: Lord Duvall of Woolwich in the Royal Borough of Greenwich OBE
• Meeting date: 20 December 2000

So is this going to be par for the course over the coming years in your approach to budget making - not even advising the Budget Scrutiny Committee that you intended to do this, when there was a process in place? Why did it have to take place there and then at the press conference? What is really your thinking? What approach do you want in future to budget making that you are going to oversee?

• Question by: Bob Neill
• Meeting date: 20 December 2000

The substantive point that I wanted to raise is this. Do you think that you have been honest with the electors of London in the way you have trailed this? Your report said that you wanted £60 million investment to secure the recruitment of 1,050 police officers. Yet it is very apparent from the figures we have heard this morning that you do not need anything like that sum for 1,050 police officers; and that the Home Office is giving you enough funding through the crime reduction fund - £38 million - for 800 of those, even if you can...

• Question by: Bob Neill
• Meeting date: 20 December 2000

I have no intention of reducing the precept in the run-up to the election. The problem in London is that we have inadequate public services, which have been underfunded, and unfairly funded, for many years. There was a clear choice at the election. The Labour party ran on the basis that they would not increase the council tax if elected. I refused to give that commitment, which I though was irresponsible; I won the election. I have increased the council tax more than I would like, but when you look at the problems that bear down, you see that we...

• Question by: Elizabeth Howlett
• Meeting date: 20 December 2000

It was fairly secret, but we did hear about it; and I am glad that you have now admitted that you did a deal with the Commissioner and the Chairman of the MPA in order to get this 60p on band D through the MPA, which it duly did. I have to say to you that not all Conservatives were happy about it, as Jenny Jones said, because we realised the difficulty that the rise from £91 to £126 would cause local authorities. A total of 863 officers have left this year, and we have recruited 627. That is a...

• Question by: Jenny Jones
• Meeting date: 20 December 2000

Well, you have managed to do it again: you have united the Assembly in cross-party annoyance at the lack of courtesy you are showing to us. Obvious the Police Authority was pleased about the extra money. We get to spend it, and you get the blame if it is not spent properly. But we have to find some positive route forward. Is it possible for you to work together with the Chair of the Police Authority so that a little more information is disseminated to its members? It is a new authority, and we need your support to make us...

• Question by: Toby Harris
• Meeting date: 20 December 2000

You are of course aware that the view of the MPA was unanimously that it is your responsibility to decide how much to tax London taxpayers; but, as you are minded to make the equivalent of 60p per week available to the Metropolitan Police Authority, we spent some time working out how best to use those resources. I hear what you say - that you trust the MPA; that you accept the MPA's role - but I must echo Graham Tope's remarks. When you get into the detail, I think that you do cut across what are legitimate matters both...

• Question by: Tony Arbour
• Meeting date: 20 December 2000

Are you aware that the outer London boroughs view this with considerable suspicion? They pay a substantial amount in the police precept, and for two of the boroughs which I represent, since the majority of residents live in band F and G housing, the figure will be not 60p but more than £1 a week. They do not believe that they will get a fair share of the additional resources that you will be pulling in through the precept. They think that it would be far better spent if they had control of the extra money to provide law enforcement...