• Question by: Unmesh Desai
• Meeting date: 19 December 2024

Unmesh Desai AM: Thank you. Mr Mayor, I know you have already talked about drink spiking. However, your office has sent me data that shows that 2024 is already the highest year on record for drink spiking. I welcome that victims are feeling more willing to come forward. However, these numbers are revealing of just how big of an issue drink spiking is. I know you are taking this very seriously. Will you be prioritising tackling the scourge of drink spiking in your upcoming Budget?

• Question by: Len Duvall OBE
• Meeting date: 19 December 2024

Len Duvall AM (Deputy Chair): Thank you very much, Chair, and welcoming the question being asked by the Member. In all these settlements and awards that we receive from central Government, behind this is fundamentally about some real structural issues around how that funding is used. Is that not one of the issues and one of the pressures that we are facing getting police officers to do their jobs in the right place? That is warranted police officers being warranted police officers, rather than doing support roles that can be done by non-police officers? Is that not one of the...

• Question by: Unmesh Desai
• Meeting date: 19 December 2024

Unmesh Desai AM: Thank you, Chair. Mr Mayor, I am not going to apologise for repeating much of what you have already said on the policing front. Why? Because it is important. The reality of what has happened over the last 14 years is not challenged by false narrative. What is the reality? The reality is that the austerity of the last 14 years was extremely damaging for the MPS, cuts of up to £1 billion. Cuts have consequences. This Government announced -- Andrew Boff AM (Chair): Assembly Member, please relate your question to the question. Unmesh Desai AM: Hear...

• Question by: Len Duvall OBE
• Meeting date: 19 December 2024

Len Duvall AM (Deputy Chair): It is a bit rich, is it not, when people hark back about legacies and inheritances that they received from a Labour Government in 2010, when the period of the coalition Government induced austerity measures that quite clearly did not need to be taken and the legacy that we are still dealing with at this present occasion, you rightly said today about the MPS, our troubles began in 2010 and that is why there are structural problems in terms of settlements and that is where we have. Well done and thank you for the work...

• Question by: Emma Best
• Meeting date: 19 December 2024

Emma Best AM: Thank you. Good morning, Mr Mayor, and merry Christmas and congratulations on your successful event on Monday. I know using football for good is something that hopefully we can agree that we agree on. Moving on, you will have seen in the news this week [The Rt Hon] Liz Kendall’s [Secretary of State for Work and Pensions] decision to not award the compensation agreement to the Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI) women and you follow a long line of Labour leaders and high profile politicians that have stood side by side and said you support the...

• Question by: Keith Prince
• Meeting date: 19 December 2024

Keith Prince AM: Will you take this opportunity to promise Londoners that one of your New Year resolutions will be to get London moving? Under your mayoralty, London buses are slower, less safe, and less reliable. A recent London TravelWatch report [The next stop: Making London's buses better, November 2024] made it clear that the bus network requires urgent improvement.

• Question by: Lord Bailey of Paddington
• Meeting date: 19 December 2024

Lord Bailey of Paddington AM: Thank you, Chair, and Happy Hanukkah to all those celebrating Hanukkah. Happy Christmas to all Assembly Members and the Mayor and your families as well. I hope you have a safe and fun and wonderful time. Mr Mayor, let us just quickly talk about policing for just one second. I do not think it is fair, Mayor, to say that we do not care. You are looking at, in me, someone who has been a youth worker for over 35 years. One of my colleagues here, we used to work for a project that was...

• Question by: Susan Hall
• Meeting date: 19 December 2024

Susan Hall AM: Good morning, Mr Mayor, and may I wish you and your family a really happy and safe time this Christmas and also to all of those celebrating Hanukkah, which is at the same time. I am going to go back to policing. As you know, it is my passion. If I can just take you back so that we can look towards your New Year’s resolutions. Just to confirm, you are the London Police and Crime Commissioner and in the last year you have allowed knife crime to reach a record high. You have overseen a 30...

• Question by: Alessandro Georgiou
• Meeting date: 19 December 2024

Alessandro Georgiou AM: Good morning, Mr Mayor and may I wish you and your family a merry Christmas and a happy New Year. Mr Mayor, will you keep a promise as a New Year’s resolution to Londoners and just admit the truth that a vote for Labour is a vote for broken promises and punishments wrought on Londoners?

• Question by: Caroline Russell
• Meeting date: 19 December 2024

Caroline Russell AM: Thank you, Mr Mayor. The boroughs are expecting feedback on their Local Implementation Plan (LIP) delivery plans in the second week of January [2025]. This is essential work to help you meet your MTS targets. Can you commit to being transparent and communicating clearly and regularly with the boroughs over any impact of the ruling on these Safe and Healthy Streets funding decisions?