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• Question by: Murad Qureshi
• Meeting date: 04 November 2015

Murad Qureshi AM: Following on from Tony [Arbour AM], sometimes in central London it feels like tourists have taken over the world. I am pretty keen to see tourists - and I think a lot of residents of central London are - spread around outer London. Are you really doing enough on that front? Take, for example, the last time I came back on the Eurostar from Europe. It was a train full of mostly Japanese and Chinese tourists. There were advertisements on the Tannoy for them to go to Madame Tussauds and the London Dungeon. That is the kind...

• Question by: Murad Qureshi
• Meeting date: 10 November 2007

My question is to Paul Deighton at LOCOG. We know the Chinese are going to be spending a fortune on the opening ceremony. How much are we actually spending on that?

• Question by: Murad Qureshi
• Meeting date: 10 November 2007

I am glad to hear that emphasis. The other thing you touched on was TV rights and that clearly is the cash-cow that underlies most of LOCOG's finances and is hopefully subsidising some of the infrastructure works. It is quite probable that this TV deal over the London Olympics in 2012 will be quite a major expansion from what it is at the moment. If the Chinese get hooked on Olympic gold, I think you will have two competing TV markets. What arrangements will there be for us to take a bigger percentage of that rather than take a lump...

• Question by: Murad Qureshi
• Meeting date: 25 April 2007

Finally, given that you have milestones and key milestones and a set date to achieve it, would it not have been better to have set up bonus payments rather than contingency sums, given that is going to be the name of the game - getting to key stages at key times at critical points? Clearly we would rather be giving them money for achieving that, rather than spending their time making those claims, which invariably half the building trade does.

• Question by: Murad Qureshi
• Meeting date: 25 April 2007

Sir Roy, if we accept the Government figures as the upper limits to the expenditure on the Olympics, I think the key thing is the management of the contingencies. I am worried that we find ourselves in contracts with contractors who then spend most of their time making claims for the contingencies. They are very generous; about 60% of the build costs. I have certainly had that experience of managing projects myself. What do you have lined up in the procurement arrangements with contractors which make sure they focus and achieve the milestones, rather than putting in the estimators to...

• Question by: Murad Qureshi
• Meeting date: 25 April 2007

You have mentioned the Cabinet Committees that are keeping an eye on this. Surely the building contract and the legality of that will supersede anything that they can decide about which contingency sums can be drawn from or not.