Downing Street Says » 2006

» Thursday, May 18, 2006

Pensions

Asked about the pensions briefing at Cabinet, the PMOS said that it was best that Parliament heard it first, which would probably be towards the back end of next week though it was not yet 100% decided.

Briefing took place at 8:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

Nuclear Energy

Asked if there had been a discussion in Cabinet about nuclear energy, the PMOS said no. Asked when Cabinet had last been briefed about the cost of nuclear power stations, the PMOS said that the costs would obviously be a part of the energy review and it would look at the costs on all sides. As he had said throughout the week, there wasn't any cost free option on the table.

Briefing took place at 8:00 | Read whole briefing | Comment (1)

Nuclear Energy

Asked to comment on the alleged cabinet splits over nuclear power funding, the PMOS said that the time to talk about costs would be whenever the energy review was published. That said everyone should bear in mind that whatever was decided there would be costs associated with that. Renewables would cost as well. The idea that you could get something for nothing in this area was a fallacy. The PMOS repeated that the time to talk about costs would be when the energy review was complete. However, it was worth underlining again that the cost of doing nothing was that we would become 80-90% dependent on foreign imports and that we would have to accept that we would miss the carbon emissions target by some distance.

Briefing took place at 8:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

Royal Mail

Asked for an explanation for the Government giving £1.75bn to Royal Mail on the day Royal Mail had announced profits of £355m, the PMOS said that the money was allowing Royal to transfer reserves which already existed, so this was not new Government money as such. Furthermore it was an investment on which the Government would receive money back in the future. So it was a sensible way to allow Royal Mail to invest in the future, something which was in the public interest. Asked if the Government would make a profit out of this, the PMOS said that it would, as Royal Mail had said this morning.

Briefing took place at 8:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

Other Business

Asked if there would be further figures on the number of foreign prisoners deported, the PMOS said that we had committed to giving regular updates to Parliament, but it was better that the Home Office decided on the most sensible times to do that. It was in the interests of Parliament and the public that we gave updates at significant points rather trying to keep to a pro forma routine.

Briefing took place at 8:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

» Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Deportations

Asked to clarify the Prime Minister's thinking on deporting people to unsafe countries, the Prime Minister's Official Spokesman (PMOS) said it was important to distinguish between two things: on the one hand if you had a specific threat against an individual that was one thing but if there was an overall perception of a country that was another thing. It was important to distinguish between the two. The PMOS said the key, as he had said in his briefings on this subject two weeks ago, was to switch the presumption. The situation we had reached in this country over the years was one where ad hoc reasons and decisions had been taken about why people should not be deported and these had grown into a body of opinion. For example the current situation at the moment was that you had to serve twelve months in prison before you could be deported. The Prime Minster's view was that this should change. Therefore the presumption should be that foreign nationals should be deported unless there was a good reason why not to deport them. Asked how the distinction between an unstable regime and a specific threat to an individual could be drawn, the PMOS said that you did it on a case-by-case basis. For instance, without going into specific ongoing cases, we were now deporting people to Iraq and Afghanistan.

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

Nuclear Power

Asked at what point in the drafting of Prime Minister's speech did he highlight the nuclear energy issue, which people had been led to believe was not going to make a big push initially, the Prime Minister's Official Spokesman (PMOS) replied that if people looked back at the briefing on Tuesday, he did mention that energy would be part of the subject. The Prime Minister did not finish writing the speech until shortly before the PMOS gave quotes yesterday afternoon.

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

Immigration

Asked whether the Prime Minister had asked for an explanation from the Home Office as to why someone in such a senior position could not answers questions put to him on illegal immigration, the PMOS said that if people looked at the question of illegal immigrants, as the exchange at PMQs today had underlined, no government had ever been able to answer that question. If people looked at what was changing in the immigration service it did underline that progress was being made. As the Prime Minister had himself said at PMQs we were not pretending that the system was in any way near perfect, but in all fairness people had to acknowledge what had changed was for the better. The judgement that had to be made was whether things were going in the right direction: answer yes. Were things perfect: no. Put that it was a specific question about Mr Roberts' performance in the job, the PMOS said that the question you needed to ask and answer first was whether any government minister or official been able to answer that specific question and the answer to that was no. Therefore people had to look at the situation in the round. It was not appropriate for the Prime Minister or his spokesman to comment on an individual civil servant.

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

Asylum Seekers

Asked if the Prime Minister thought that it was satisfactory that we "did not have the faintest idea" how many illegal asylum seekers were in the country, the PMOS replied that the reality was that no government had ever been able to say how many illegal immigrants there were. So, in that sense, nothing new was said yesterday. What we did know, however, was that 1000 failed asylum seekers and illegals were now being removed a month. 22% more being removed in 2005/6, compared to the previous year. There were 3500 targeted, intelligence-led operations last year, and if people looked at the figures compared to 1997, the total number of enforced removals in 1997 was 6610, and in 2004, there were 20,370. That gave people an idea of the increasing effectiveness. The PMOS said that of course, this was an area where we were constantly seeking improvements, but whenever the figures were published next week, in terms of the balance between the number of applications and the number being removed, we would see that significant progress had been made.

Briefing took place at 7:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (3)

Deputy Prime Minister

Asked whether the Prime Minister had seen much of DPMQs, the PMOS said that he thought the Prime Minsiter had sat down for the last the question to the Deputy Prime Minister and then it had moved on to Hilary Armstrong. Asked whether the Prime Minister thought the Deputy Prime Minister's position was sustainable in such a situation, the PMOS said that the best summary of his view of the Deputy Prime Minister and the value of the role that he played in government was to be found in his appointment letter published today. Asked how often the cabinet committees listed met and lasted, the PMOS said that he did not discuss the operations of cabinet committees. The whole point of them was that they could work behind the scenes and resolve issues, which was best done without a running commentary.

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

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» Thursday, May 18, 2006

Pensions

Nuclear Energy

Nuclear Energy

Royal Mail

Other Business

» Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Deportations

Nuclear Power

Immigration

Asylum Seekers

Deputy Prime Minister

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