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• Question by: Brian Coleman
• Meeting date: 19 July 2006

Mr Faulkner, has the minimum wage helped or hindered in your view?

• 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: Brian Coleman
• Meeting date: 19 July 2006

Can I just come in and ask Mr Ross whether the Mayor has done any work on this? Has the Greater London Authority done any work on this?

• Question by: Valerie Shawcross
• Meeting date: 19 July 2006

I think you used the phrase `extremely excluded', and I would be interested to hear what disaggregated information there is about the people in poverty that we are talking about, because my experience has been that there are some people in our communities, some communities in fact, which are so extremely poor and excluded that I am not sure that the state is even capable of inter-meshing with the levels of poverty that they are experiencing. For example, there are members of the Somalian community in London, of whom probably more than 75% are unemployed, who cannot afford to dress...

• Question by: Nicky Gavron
• Meeting date: 19 July 2006

These families are generally led by women; I wondered how significant you thought the gender pay-gap in London was, which is increasing - widening - here, whereas it isn't in the rest of the country. I understand that the most typical job for a woman here is paid at £5.30 an hour, whereas the most typical job for a man is paid at £17.50 an hour.

• Question by: Geoff Pope
• Meeting date: 19 July 2006

I think this is a question about transport and the effect on poverty, so it might be appropriate for Mr Ross. We know that part of the nature of poverty in London is the cost of travelling, not only to economic and business opportunities, but also, for those perhaps who are less mobile, to hospitals and health centres. We have the situation in London where those people who travel relatively infrequently find that for the cheapest fares you actually need to purchase up-front an Oyster card. If you do not do this, because you've only have a small amount of...

• Question by: Mike Tuffrey
• Meeting date: 19 July 2006

I won't pursue that, because we have some questions on the employment piece a little later, so I was just going to follow on from Angie (Bray). If the 60% of median income, which as she rightly says is a relative measure, is not merely statistical convenience, because there are exclusion or inequality issues, I wonder whether John could help us in terms of the balance between policy measures that address the absolutes and policy measures that should be reducing inequality, because they clearly are differing strands. If the argument is that we need to do both, how do we...

• Question by: Brian Coleman
• Meeting date: 19 July 2006

Before I bring in Mr Tuffrey, I wonder, Mr Faulkner, whether you would like to make a contribution about the role of the Chamber of Commerce, and particularly, I know, your particular expertise on the Skills and Employment Forum, and the role it is playing in reducing poverty?

• Question by: Murad Qureshi
• Meeting date: 19 July 2006

I was just wondering what the impact of the minimum wage has been in London in reducing relative poverty. Clearly, it affects those in employment, rather than those outside it, but I would like some idea of what the experts feel has been the impact.

• Question by: Brian Coleman
• Meeting date: 19 July 2006

I am happy to take a response from you, Mr Faulkner, but I do not want to discuss the merits of the Oyster card.