• Question by: Emma Best
• Meeting date: 08 February 2024

Andrew Boff AM (Chair): I now call on Assembly Member Best, please. Emma Best AM: Thanks, Chair, I do have some questions. I wanted to first start with you, Andy, please and take you back almost to the day last year when we had this Plenary, and I was asking you a series of questions focused on the LFB’s work with youth. One of the challenges I made was the age that you need to be to join the cadets. You said that was a good challenge and question and you said you would go away and look at it...

• Question by: Andrew Boff
• Meeting date: 08 February 2024

Andrew Boff AM (Chair): Before we move onto the next question - and this is off the clock - I am a little concerned that in the response to previous questioners there seems to be a lot of reference to another Deputy Mayor and just as a piece of advice, and perhaps for the future to take into consideration, much as you are here to represent the Mayor’s policy with regard to the fire service, you are also part of the administration. Therefore, I would hope that in the future your briefings could be a little more extensive so that...

• Question by: Sem Moema
• Meeting date: 08 February 2024

Andrew Boff AM (Chair): Thank you. Assembly Member Bailey, please. Then Assembly Member Moema, please. Sem Moema AM: Thank you, Chair. Good morning, Commissioner, and good morning, Baroness Twycross. I want to turn my question on its head a little because I appreciate that there is this fuzzy line between you and the Deputy Mayor for Housing [and Residential Development] when it comes to building and fire safety, as in there are things which are clearly within your remit and things to do with remediation and the actual works, which fall within his remit. I just wondered though, for the...

• Question by: Krupesh Hirani
• Meeting date: 08 February 2024

Andrew Boff AM (Chair): Assembly Member Hirani please. Krupesh Hirani AM: Thank you, Chair. Adam Gabsi, a disabled constituent of mine, was involved in an ongoing battle to get working lifts in his building in his block of flats with the lifts constantly breaking down, meaning at times he was unable to leave his property. Now I am pleased to say that, after a tough battle, his building does now have two working lifts, but this is a concern for disabled people in London, especially following the recent fire in Wembley, which is also in my constituency, on a cladded...

• Question by: Anne Clarke
• Meeting date: 08 February 2024

Andrew Boff AM (Chair): Thank you. Assembly Member Clarke, please. Anne Clarke AM: Thank you, Chair, and good morning. Andy, how is the LFB adapting to deal with the rise in fires caused by faulty batteries and e-bikes and e-scooters?

• Question by: Susan Hall
• Meeting date: 08 February 2024

Andrew Boff AM (Chair): Thank you, Commissioner. I am sorry, but the Liberal Democrat Group is now out of time. I am now calling on Assembly Member Hall, please. Susan Hall AM: Thank you. Apologies, Chairman and everybody, for being late. The Metropolitan line - because I always blame the Mayor for everything - therefore it is definitely the Mayor’s fault that I am late today. Andy, if I can start, how many firefighters are currently not working or pending investigation?

• Question by: Hina Bokhari OBE
• Meeting date: 08 February 2024

Andrew Boff AM (Chair): The Green Group is now out of time. Assembly Member Bokhari, please. Hina Bokhari AM: Thank you. Both of you have referred to the Independent Culture Review, but I am going to just focus my questions on the LFC, if I may. The LFB was found to be institutionally racist, sexist and misogynistic. My written question in January revealed that only a third, just 27 out of 84 investigations into the staff of the LFB since the report has related to racism, misogyny and homophobia. Do you think that this number of investigations reflects the scale...

• Question by: Zack Polanski
• Meeting date: 08 February 2024

Zack Polanski AM: Thank you, Chair. Good morning, Commissioner. Good morning, Deputy Mayor. Commissioner, I would like to have a conversation with you about climate. This is obviously something we have spoken about a lot, but I do wonder if we had these conversations a decade or two ago it would have seemed very abstract, and your answers and my questions would be very different. Just in the last few years, we have seen increasing floods, we have seen days like today where there is sudden heavy rainfall, we have seen wildfires. I am really aware of not scaring people...

• Question by: Sakina Sheikh
• Meeting date: 08 February 2024

Sakina Sheikh AM: Thank you, Chair, and good morning, Deputy Mayor, and good morning, Commissioner. Commissioner, I believe you when you say you think about the survivors and bereaved families from Grenfell every day and those lives that were lost. I could see the way that you presented your comments in Fire, Resilience and Emergency Planning [Committee] (FREP) last week meant that what you heard at testimony week had really sunk in. In that spirit, could you please tell me from phase one of the Grenfell Tower inquiry what impact has that had on the LFB? Feel free to draw...

• Reference: 2024/4376
• Question by: Chair, London Assembly
• Meeting date: 08 February 2024

What are the biggest issues facing the LFB this year?