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• Question by: Jennette Arnold OBE
• Meeting date: 25 April 2007

It is just a quick one. I understand that the delay at Hog Hill has been caused by you finding a particular wildlife there that needs to be preserved, and there has been six months delay to date. Can you guarantee us that it will not be a year's delay or 18 months' delay? Where are we with that?

• Question by: Jennette Arnold OBE
• Meeting date: 25 April 2007

So it has been sorted now and it will be finished by September? That is what you are saying?

• Question by: Jennette Arnold OBE
• Meeting date: 25 April 2007

So the newts will be rehoused?

• Question by: Jennette Arnold OBE
• Meeting date: 25 April 2007

I want to go back to jobs and I want to talk about the jobs that are your responsibility. Can you confirm for us the total amount of jobs projected? I was present at a recent presentation by your excellent Head of HR which really electrified the room, local communities, and put meat around the skeleton of the plans. I would like you to confirm with us here today the absolute numbers that you are expecting to employ. I also understand that you have employed - is it your first 500 or 5,000 people? I saw something printed this week...

• Question by: Jennette Arnold OBE
• Meeting date: 17 January 2007

Can I then ask what is the current investment in, specifically, tobacco? I ask this because I raised this question in September 2005 with the Mayor, and his answer then was that he was of the opinion that LPFA was looking towards developing an ethical investment policy that would take account of this type of issue. Can I just add, you talked about employment and you said it was fine, if you like, to be investing in BAE (British Aerospace) because it gave us great employment. Is it fine to stay investing in tobacco companies that kill hundreds of thousands...

• Question by: Jennette Arnold OBE
• Meeting date: 17 January 2007

Can I just say that for me the meeting started well but from that last response I am really quite disappointed. Can we go back to the answers to Mike's [Tuffrey] question? If we are talking about openness, then why do we not see something like that in this document? Where would you see this approach that you have outlined in this document? Basically, from what you have said, you have a very narrow definition of a pension fund that seeks to be socially responsible. Let me just say to you, you used the phrase, `It would be lunatic to...

• Question by: Jennette Arnold OBE
• Meeting date: 17 January 2007

How long will that stock remain with your fund?

• Question by: Jennette Arnold OBE
• Meeting date: 17 January 2007

But can you tell me the share? And can I just follow you on and say, if you are thinking long term, are you not aware that tobacco companies, themselves, are disinvesting in the poisonous weed, and are going into different stocks and different products? So, can you not say that on this issue, you, as the Chair of this body, will be working with your officers to be shifting whatever that investment that is currently within the portfolio somewhere else?

• Question by: Jennette Arnold OBE
• Meeting date: 17 January 2007

I did not hear your answer. Is your answer that your fund managers are being asked to move this share out of the current investment portfolio?

• Reference: 2007/0007
• Question by: Jennette Arnold OBE
• Meeting date: 17 January 2007

What actions are you taking towards a more ethical investment policy by disinvesting from tobacco companies and the arms trade?