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» Tuesday, January 17, 2006

Al-Jazeera

Asked how Downing Street intended to respond to a request from legal representatives for the Al-Jazeera news network for transcripts or notes of a conversation between the Prime Minister and the President of the United States, the Prime Minister's Official Spokesman (PMOS) said that we would reply properly to any request made to us, however it was not the practice, and nor would it become the practice for Downing Street to release conversations between the Prime Minister and other world leaders, be they President Bush or anyone else.

Briefing took place at 7:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (9)

Ruth Kelly

Asked if it was correct that there would be no reshuffle till after Ruth Kelly's statement, the Prime Minister's Official Spokesman (PMOS) said that he did not give a running commentary on reshuffles. But as it was they could see it was already a busy week.

Briefing took place at 7:00 | Read whole briefing | Comment (1)

Sex Offenders/Education

Asked for any further details, Prime Minister's Official Spokesman (PMOS) said the best thing on the review would be to let it move forward to Thursday. The important thing would be that where it strayed in areas of previous administrations there would be the necessary consultations. In terms of the impact of Bichard he had been right in what he had said in the morning. Asked how far back the review was looking, the PMOS said it would be whatever was necessary, but again the best thing was not to provide a running commentary on the review but wait till Thursday when Ruth Kelly would set out the entire picture as she saw it.

Briefing took place at 7:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (2)

Education

Asked if at any time Ruth Kelly had offered her resignation, the Prime Minister's Official Spokesman (PMOS) said that he was not aware of any such occasion. The Prime Minister had himself made it clear the issue had not arisen. Asked if there was definitely still a Ruth Kelly statement in light of the one now slated for Charles Clarke, the PMOS said that Ruth Kelly's statement was definitely happening.

Briefing took place at 7:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

ID cards

Asked how important it was that ID card legislation reached the statute book without being amended to include an independent review of the cost, the PMOS said that in terms of the cost we continued to stick by the costs produced by the Home Office. As Home Office Minister, Andy Burnham had said this morning the costs had been validated by KPMG. We did not recognise the LSE costing, which we believed had been inflated.

Briefing took place at 7:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (2)

ID cards

Put to the PMOS that the KPMG report on ID cards had recommended a more detailed risk based cost analysis, the PMOS said that the project had already been through a number of processes. It had already been through a further Office of Government Commerce (OGC) review on business justification. The review confirmed that the project was ready to proceed to the next phase. An independent assurance panel was now in place to ensure that the work was subject to rigorous on-going challenge by experts as well as major periodic reviews via the OGC process.

Briefing took place at 7:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (8)

Leo Blair

Asked if there was anything in the Adam Boulton claim on Sky that it was a Downing Street wheeze, the PMOS said first and foremost that he genuinely wished he did not have to answer this question. But we had pointed out to Sky that their allegation was 100% wrong. There was no evidence for it. Therefore it was up to Sky to justify why it had made such a claim. That was the polite version. The impolite version was for Adam Boulton's ears only.

Briefing took place at 7:00 | Read whole briefing | Comment (1)

ID cards

Asked about the discrepancy in the Home Secretary's interpretation of public opinion polls on the issue of the ID cards, where the actual results reflected a drop from 79% support to 73% support rather than a rise as the Home Secretary had suggested, the PMOS said that the difference between the numbers was only 6% and any policy with over 70% public support after more than a year showed considerable public support. The Home Office would deal with the particular matter of what the Home Secretary said, but over 70% was a pretty solid base of support.

Briefing took place at 7:00 | Read whole briefing | Comment (1)

Education White Paper

Put to the PMOS that Estelle Morris had today said that the white paper was the worst document she had ever encountered and that Downing Street only had itself to blame for the current difficulties, the PMOS suggested that there were a lot of documents competing for that particular prize and not all of them were produced by government. But to answer seriously the white paper was designed to meet a need. That need was clearly identified by the NAO report of last week, which showed that the number of failing schools had halved. Equally it showed and confirmed that there was still a long way to go in terms of raising all schools up to the necessary standard.

Briefing took place at 7:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (4)

Iran

Asked if the British Government was open to President Putin's compromise idea on Iran, the PMOS said that we had said all along that our ideal out for this was a diplomatic solution. But a diplomatic solution had to mean than Iran abided by its international obligations. Therefore that was the test. If Iran wanted to come up with a solution that met that test, fine. Mr El Baradei was even stronger on this in his Newsweek interview. He had said, "I do not want the agency to be cheated; I do not want the process to be abused." That was they key test.

Briefing took place at 7:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

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» Tuesday, January 17, 2006

Al-Jazeera

Ruth Kelly

Sex Offenders/Education

Education

ID cards

ID cards

Leo Blair

ID cards

Education White Paper

Iran

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