Search questions

• Question by: Tom Copley
• Meeting date: 06 December 2018

Tom Copley AM: The London Fire Brigade has carried out over 1,100 audits of buildings with potentially flammable cladding since the Grenfell disaster. How are you coping with this workload?

• Question by: Navin Shah
• Meeting date: 06 December 2018

Navin Shah AM: Commissioner, you described the effectiveness of sprinklers in residential buildings as a no-brainer. What progress has the London Fire Brigade made in promoting sprinklers and progressing the recommendations made in the London Assembly’s report [ Never Again: Sprinklers as the next step in fire safety ] on sprinklers published in March this year [2018]?

• Question by: Caroline Pidgeon
• Meeting date: 06 December 2018

Caroline Pidgeon MBE AM: My questions are about your future priorities and whether your budget will impact on your fire safety work, especially relating to tackling dangerous household electrical goods. I know the London Fire Brigade has a really good record here, but the challenges you are facing are soaring with internet sales particularly. I have read that in London every day a dangerous electrical good counts for one fire, which is a really significant figure, and we know from the Grenfell [Tower] inquiry that that almost certainly started from a fridge-freezer. Electrical Safety First highlights that the key problem...

• Question by: Len Duvall OBE
• Meeting date: 06 December 2018

Len Duvall AM: Can you just explain to us about some of the issues of risk and managing the capital projects? You have done a bit of reprofiling and it is being phased. Of course, some are in your control and some are not in your control. It is important for the Assembly to understand how you are managing the risk around that and what you are profiling and when you say, “Sorry, we just have to go and do this”?

• Question by: Florence Eshalomi MP
• Meeting date: 06 December 2018

Florence Eshalomi AM: We know that under the former Mayor, 10 stations across London were closed and that was supposed to generate savings of about £28 million. As of July 2016, eight had been sold but there are two still that are on the books, Clerkenwell and Southwark. Clerkenwell was due to generate at least £10 million but this sale has been delayed again. We see from the finance update in July [2018] that this has been delayed again. Do you feel that you have an efficient and steady redevelopment programme in terms of making sure that these sales are...

• Question by: Unmesh Desai
• Meeting date: 06 December 2018

Unmesh Desai AM: Commissioner, you touched on aspects of safety such as electrical safety, but I want to ask you very specifically about safety visits to high-risk people and places, which have declined by some 6,000 since December 2015. Are you satisfied that the Brigade is doing all it can to help vulnerable people, such as residents in care homes, to stay safe?

• Question by: Joanne McCartney
• Meeting date: 06 December 2018

Joanne McCartney AM: My question is initially for the Deputy Mayor, but, please, Commissioner add to that. It is about the London Resilience Forum. It exists to co-ordinate different organisations across London, but we know that austerity and Government cuts have really impacted on those organisations. What has the impact of austerity been on your partners’ ability to deliver what may be needed in the event of a major incident?

• Question by: Leonie Cooper
• Meeting date: 06 December 2018

Leonie Cooper AM: I would like to talk about another aspect than fire of the Resilience and Emergency Planning brief and that relates to water. As you are undoubtedly aware, earlier on this year we were two weeks away from a hosepipe ban and, luckily for us, it started to rain. What are you doing to improve our water resilience?

• Question by: Gareth Bacon MP
• Meeting date: 06 December 2018

Gareth Bacon AM: I do not know who would be best to answer this. It is just a quick sally into finances. We are going to have a deeper dive on this next week when you are in front of the Budget and Performance Committee, but what is the most recent revenue forecast outturn for 2018/19? This was reported in August [2018] but, according to the London Fire Brigade papers, at the end of June the financial position was an underspend of £7.3 million, which is roughly 1.8% of your budget. Is that still the position or has that moved...

• Question by: Navin Shah
• Meeting date: 06 December 2018

Navin Shah AM: I have a quick couple of questions on cladding. Last week we had confirmation that the Government is banning combustible cladding on buildings over 80 metres, which you all very much welcomed. However, the London Fire Brigade in its consultation response said - and again we agree - that this was like treating the symptoms rather than the cure itself. What steps need to be taken towards the cure itself, Commissioner?