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• Question by: Angie Bray
• Meeting date: 19 July 2006

I appreciate that the widely used definition of the poverty line is 60% of the median income. How was that originally arrived at, and is that an absolutely fixed definition?

• Question by: Angie Bray
• Meeting date: 19 July 2006

No, no, indeed, because I think that is an important point, because I think that in the mindset of the public it is confusing when you hear that x percent of people in London are technically living at or below the poverty line. I wondered if that definition would still be applicable if the median income rose considerably in London. One might feel that the definition was less, then, to do with poverty. I suppose I am asking you: are we talking about relative poverty as opposed to absolute poverty?

• Question by: Angie Bray
• Meeting date: 19 July 2006

One of the things that you have not really talked about in your answers is that while we bandy around this expression, `learning and skills', nobody actually defines precisely what skills are actually going to do the trick, and help deliver some of the solutions. Am I right in thinking that one of the skills that we need to put much more focus on, if we are going to get more people into work and skilled up, is language in this city of ours. The question - really for Mr Faulkner - is whether he finds that languages do provide...

• Question by: Jennette Arnold OBE
• Meeting date: 06 April 2005

I want to focus on the North London Line, which is absolutely important for London but also crucial for the constituency I represent, Hackney, Islington and Waltham Forest. If we just look at the Hackney and Islington part of it, you can see why we welcome the ambitions and the funding that are being proposed for the North London Line. Can you repeat what you were saying about your meeting with the Department for Transport? Are you saying that you were discussing a plan B, for instance, if the Railway Bill does not make it? What sort of timescales were...

• Question by: Jennette Arnold OBE
• Meeting date: 06 April 2005

With the North London Line, if you were just able to extend the platform that would give us longer trains and you would then be able to deal with the overcrowding.

• Question by: Jennette Arnold OBE
• Meeting date: 06 April 2005

Continuing with the theme that they will do the right thing, which we hope they will, what benefits will my constituents, who rely on the North London Line, be able to see once TfL takes responsibility for this part of the network? Can you re-affirm your commitment to the 'turn-up-and-go' way of operating that I read was one of your ambitions?

• Question by: Angie Bray
• Meeting date: 06 April 2005

Therefore you are actually putting it up to help fill a deficit. ... To balance the books. As the penalty revenue falls you are predicting a deficit.

• Question by: Jennette Arnold OBE
• Meeting date: 06 April 2005

You told us earlier about the constraints of funding and how much the infrastructure improvement is dependent on that, which I think we all understand. However, in terms of raising future revenues, do you agree with the quote in the Evening Standard, a couple of days ago I think, from your board colleague, Professor Stephen Glaister that, `In future years Congesting Charging has to be a key revenue generator'?

• Question by: Angie Bray
• Meeting date: 06 April 2005

Staying on the subject of revenue from Congestion Charging - is not the problem for TfL that they foresee a huge drop in the amount of revenue from Congestion Charging as people learn to manoeuvre themselves through the rather Byzantine payment system, whereby you will be getting less penalty money? Is not the whole point of jacking it up from £5 to £8 actually to make a start on filling the deficit that TfL has actually prophesied itself?

• Question by: Angie Bray
• Meeting date: 06 April 2005

What about the public inquiry the ALG has called for, a cross-party call to you?