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• Question by: Tony Arbour
• Meeting date: 19 November 2008

How confident are you in the competence of the Home Office to carry through all the security procedures that are going to be required with the many tens of thousands of volunteers that you are going to be using? I am referring particularly to Criminal Record Bureau (CRB) checks. Currently when police officers are being recruited, teachers are being recruited, social workers in Haringey are being recruited, it takes many months to go through all of this process and that is just normal everyday work. So, do you actually think the Home Office are up to it?

• Question by: Tony Arbour
• Meeting date: 12 June 2002

I'm trying to find out what powers you actually have when the Mayor is away. Supposing there was a 11 September situation, for example a plane crashed into the House of Commons, the Mayor was in Australia, all flights were postponed, as they were after 11 September, and there's you, in London, in charge. What actions could you take in such a situation?

• Question by: Tony Arbour
• Meeting date: 12 June 2002

I was not suggesting anything like that. I was asking you what real decisions you would make. Despite the marvels of modern communication, it seems unlikely that it would be possible to communicate, even with your literary skills, precisely what was happening here in London to the Mayor, and the chances are therefore that you would have to make some decisions on your own. What kind of decisions would they be? Indeed, what decisions have you made on your own?

• Question by: Tony Arbour
• Meeting date: 12 June 2002

So you would accept that you could not reassure Londoners, despite the fact that you are the anointed one, that the Mayor has laid his hands upon you and that he has given you full powers?

• Question by: Tony Arbour
• Meeting date: 12 June 2002

Would you write her speeches in those circumstances?