State of London Debate 2021

State of London Debate is a free event for Londoners. It's an opportunity to put your questions to the Mayor of London and the Deputy Mayors about your city. 

Owing to the current COVID-19 pandemic, current government guidelines do not allow us to organise an event with large gatherings of people. Having the event online enables viewers to participate remotely and safely.

The Mayor and Deputy Mayors were on the panel to receive questions from Londoners. The meeting was chaired by LBC radio’s award-winning presenter James O’Brien, as part of Leading Britain’s Conversation – talk radio for the UK, who will also be broadcasting the event live.

Londoners selected, put forward live video questions on the night and were also seen online. Questions selected from the live chat function on the night were read out by the host.

The Deputy Mayors work alongside The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, to deliver a better and brighter future for everyone who calls this amazing, diverse city home, and will be answering questions on the night remotely.

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “I pledge to use this second term to do everything I can to build the bridges that bring us closer together and I will work tirelessly throughout the next three years with my team to deliver for all Londoners.”

There are 10 Deputy Mayors in total at GLA, alongside six special appointees; Amy Lamé - Night Czar, Dr Will Norman – Walking and Cycling Commissioner, Dr Tom Coffey OBE – Mayoral Health Advisor, Claire Waxman – Victims Commissioner, Theo Blackwell MBE – Chief Digital Officer and Lib Peck – Director of the Violence Reduction Unit.

The Deputy Mayors are:

• Joanne McCartney – Statutory Deputy Mayor / Deputy Mayor, Education and Childcare

• Jules Pipe CBE - Deputy Mayor, Planning, Regeneration and Skills

• Justine Simons OBE – Deputy Mayor, Culture and the Creative Industries

• Dr Debbie Weekes-Bernard – Deputy Mayor, Communities and Social Justice

• Rajesh Agrawal – Deputy Mayor, Business

• Shirley Rodrigues – Deputy Mayor, Environment and Energy

• Sophie Linden – Deputy Mayor, Policing and Crime

• Fiona Twycross - Deputy Mayor, Fire and Resilience

• Heidi Alexander - Deputy Mayor, Transport and Deputy Chair, Transport for London

• Tom Copley - Deputy Mayor, Housing and Residential Development

You can find out more about the Mayors responsibilities.

There were 5 core topics up for discussion on the night; Transport, Policing and Safety, Air Quality and the Environment, Housing and London's Economic Recovery, interspersed with questions around the Coronavirus pandemic relevant to each topic area. We requested to;

• Only ask one question 

• Stay on topic i.e. transport, environment 

• Keep questions concise and to the point 

If your question doesn’t get asked on the night, you can contact the Mayor after the event. We aim to respond within 20 working days.

There were approximately 4-5 questions asked and answered in each of the 5 main topic sections (this fluctuated to more or less depending on time constraints).  

The question formats accepted were as follows:

• Video questions: Questions asked live on the night via Zoom.

• Live chat questions during livestream: Registered guests used the form above to ask questions live, on the night. Viewers were able to upvote (‘like’) their favourite questions, with the most popular being shortlisted to the SOLD host, who selected as many as possible in the allocated time. 

The host directed each question to the Mayor and/or Deputy Mayors for a response. Neither the Mayor nor Deputy Mayors had access to the questions in advance.

Owing to online safeguarding issues you must be 16 or over to take part.

There are 5 topics being discussed on the night which includes Transport, Policing and Safety, Air Quality and the Environment, Housing and London's Economic Recovery. There may be an opportunity if time permits, to ask other questions within the Mayor’s remit – for example culture and education.

There were opportunities to ask questions about Covid-19 and the Coronavirus pandemic if related to the subject area. For example: Transport – why do we have to wear masks on public transport?

Yes. There was a BSL interpreter on screen (PIP - picture in picture) and subtitles on the screen via a palantypist throughout the event. A full transcript of the event is also available on request. 

Online events require digital access. Phone lines were available but is now closed.

To be able to ask questions you must register for events like these. You will receive a link to the event which allows you to participate by asking questions in the live chat function live on the night. 

For this event, the link was live from 7.15pm for a 7.30pm start. 

The event was live-streamed on this page - of which the recording has been embedded into this page.

If you do not want to ask a question live on the night through our dedicated live chat function, you can watch online without registering - you will not need to register. The event was/is available on this page.

As we needed to get through as many questions as possible, from as many people as possible, we requested;

• You ask only one question 

• Stay on topic i.e. transport, environment 

• Keep questions concise and to the point 

On the night: We wanted to ensure that Londoners got to ask their questions to the Mayor of London and Deputy Mayors. We were mindful of not subjecting them, or viewers of the event, to abuse. Questions were therefore, moderated before they were posted to the live chat, and those that contained swearing, defamatory or illegal remarks or engaged in ‘trolling’ were not posted.   

Questions that were off-topic, during a specific topic session, were also discarded. Unfortunately, due to the large number of questions anticipated, we were unable to go back to questions submitted in the wrong topic section.  

Due to the scale of questions submitted on the night, we were not able to post all questions into the live chat within the time constraints.

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