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• Question by: Elizabeth Howlett
• Meeting date: 19 July 2006

Certainly my perception is that the LSC has failed to encourage a breadth of skills training, and that's why we have this deficit in the building trade. Joiners, plumbers, they are all Europeans coming in and filling these jobs, and the indigenous population in young people leaving schools are not getting a chance because they do not have the skills and there is somehow no way that they can get the training. So, I am afraid, this is very true and I see this all the time in my constituencies. There is, actually, a wonderful life for people who have...

• Question by: Elizabeth Howlett
• Meeting date: 19 July 2006

What I wanted to ask about is the skills shortage that there is in London, and, Mr Ross, you touched on that at the very start of this meeting. There are whole areas of skills in the building trade which we do not have any longer, and so, therefore, people from Europe are walking into jobs here instead of the indigenous population. What I was going to suggest to the Mayor, now he is in charge of the Learning and Skills Board and stuff, and the new strategy, why do we not think of going back to the apprenticeship scheme...

• Question by: Elizabeth Howlett
• Meeting date: 15 June 2005

It does, and I can go on but if you have got anything to tell me other than you have already told Tony Arbour, who asked my question under a supplementary, please do. If you do not, may I explore another area?

• Question by: Elizabeth Howlett
• Meeting date: 15 June 2005

Thank you. Safer Neighbourhood Policing is your baby. It is your stamp as the new Commissioner and it is your stamp on policing in London. Therefore, if you cannot get enough money for an expansion of neighbourhood policing, your reputation is at risk. Are you sure that you are actually going to get 6,000 PCSOs paid for from the Home Office?

• Question by: Elizabeth Howlett
• Meeting date: 15 June 2005

Neighbourhood policing is very expensive. In the next two years £90 million, £100 million, something like this, for the expansion. I was in fact going to ask exactly about the £300 million that you hope to get out of your review, whether you would use any of that, and it would be right to use our own resources. I believe that the neighbourhood policing now is all rolled out in the first quarter of the year, funded by £2.8 million from the underspend which we are having this year. I think the underspend now, net of this £2.8 million, is...

• Question by: Elizabeth Howlett
• Meeting date: 15 June 2005

Can I just ask if it was your idea to actually roll out all these neighbourhood units in the first quarter of the year, or were you asked to do it from somewhere else?

• Question by: Elizabeth Howlett
• Meeting date: 15 June 2005

It would have given us 70 officers. It would have given us maybe two extra officers per borough, which would have been great.

• Question by: Elizabeth Howlett
• Meeting date: 15 June 2005

No, I am dealing with finance here.

• Reference: 2005/0235-1
• Question by: Elizabeth Howlett
• Meeting date: 15 June 2005

In light of the present underspend on the Metropolitan Police budget, which has a historical precedent, and as London would now have an extra 70 officers on the streets were it not for the 2% cap on the RAF, do you now consider the cap was necessary?

• Reference: 2005/0236-1
• Question by: Elizabeth Howlett
• Meeting date: 15 June 2005

Do you believe having more officers on streets increases or decreases the reporting of crime?