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• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 14 March 2007

Right. Are there instances of officers then seeking foreign trips which have been declined by yourself or the Mayor or through the machinery?

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 14 March 2007

So they are always accepted?

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 14 March 2007

Slightly harder question then. Can you tell us about a trip which was declined, having been requested through the machinery?

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 14 March 2007

To put this into another context, do you have a sense of the number of foreign cities that visit London on occasion?

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 14 March 2007

Could you confirm that the Mayor receives numerous requests from cities across the world for him to visit, and that he only accepts a small minority of those, given pressures on his time?

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 14 March 2007

So if it was the case that the Mayor was in the habit of junketing around the world, this would be a crime committed by many other cities around the world as well?

• Reference: 2007/0017-1
• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 14 March 2007

What factors are taken into account when deciding A. whether a trip abroad is necessary, and if so, B. who should go on the trip and what the objectives and itinerary will be?

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 13 October 2004

The first is that I am a great fan and supporter of the Olympic bid, as I hope you know, not least because it benefits my constituents enormously. One of the assurances that I think some people in east London, where there is some residual cynicism about the bid, would like is assurances about the ways in which you are going to link the bid into local contracting, local recruitment, training of local people, and relationships with local schools, so that it will be a bid that strengthens the area. There is a history of colonial intervention in east London...

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 13 October 2004

I know that quite a few detailed assurances and commitments have been made in this area already, but I think experience teaches us that you have to tell people again and again, and our job is to examine those proposals again. Are you happy after this meeting to make another written representation, to us, if you like, which could be used in communications in east London and which will clarify points about training; local contracts; the fact that you are going to get local firms, rather than Burger King or whoever, into the area; the fact that contractors will be...

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 13 October 2004

This is very important also to Athens, which is about overspends and who will meet the bill, because my sense - and this is a recurrent theme through today's questions - is a concern amongst some party groups and amongst Londoners, as well, that there is a potential outcome where there is an overspend which comes back to haunt us, like the Montreal Olympic Games of 1976, year, after year, after year. You have gone some way to answering this today, but again, it would be very helpful for us if there were a very clear, unequivocal statement coming out...