Downing Street Says ... Every day the Prime Minister’s Spokesman meets a small coterie of political journalists known as ‘the lobby’ for a topical chat, or ‘briefing’.

Every day the Prime Minister's Spokesman meets a small coterie of political journalists known as 'the lobby' for a topical chat, or 'briefing'.

Downing Street Says... is an unofficial site that lets you read summaries of these briefings and add your own comments. Want to know more?

» Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Southern Cross

Put that Southern Cross had announced 3000 redundancies, the Prime Minster’s Spokesman (PMS) told the assembled press that the Department of Health had issued a statement and there was nothing he could add to that. original source.

Syria

Asked how confident the Government was on getting a resolution on Syria, the PMS replied that the discussion that would take place this afternoon was an opening discussion. We would need to see what the view was around the table. The PMS said that the Foreign Secretary had made the point that some countries had […]

Departmental budgets

Asked about Justine Greening’s comments, the PMS said he thought the comments were broadly in line with what he had said this morning; departments had budgets which were fixed for four years and they were expected to live within them. What Justine Greening had also said was that these were four year plans and there […]

Energy prices

Asked about the rise in energy prices, the Prime Minister’s Spokesman (PMS) told the assembled press that the rise in energy bills was very disappointing for customers. This was a commercial decision fro the company involved and reflected high global energy prices at the present time. The PMS said that the Government and Ofgem would […]

Sentencing

Asked what had prompted the u-turn’ on shorter sentences, the PMS replied that we had published a Green Paper setting out some proposals and we had been consulting on those proposals. The consultation had now formally closed and resulted in around 1200 responses to the Ministry of Justice. We would be looking at those responses […]

Afghanistan

Asked if there would be a troop withdrawal this year, the PMS replied that there was nothing further to say on troop withdrawals at the present time. We were expecting an announcement from the US and it was subject of discussion when President Obama was here recently. original source.

» Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Scottish referendum

Put that the Secretary of State for Scotland said that there should be two referendums for independence and did the Prime Minister agree, the Prime Minister’s Spokesman told the assembled press that he had nothing further to add to what he had said this morning. It was up to the Scottish government to produce detailed […]

NHS reform

When asked why the Prime Minister had chosen today to speak on health when the report was not out for a week, the PMS said that e were waiting for the Future Forum report, but it was normal for the Prime Minister to make a speech on health, particularly when this debate was going on. […]

Misc

Put that Alex Salmond had asked about an economic Plan B’, for Scotland, the PMS said that we had had a long debate on economic policy yesterday and he had nothing further to add. Asked about Scottish Power increasing its prices, the PMS said that this reflected what was happening to world commodity and wholesale […]

NHS reform

Put that the phrase real terms increase’ was not in the briefing given out on the Prime Minister’s speech and did it still apply, the PMS said that this pledge was in the Coalition Agreement and was still there. On whether waiting times would be measured and what did the Prime Minister mean when he […]

Yemen

Put that there had been reports of Royal Marines on standby to help evacuate British civilians, the PMS replied that this was a routine military deployment to the region and we would not want to comment on their operations. On Yemen in particular, we were deeply concerned about what was taking place there. The PMS […]

Prevent

Asked if the Prime Minster thought that he could control the internet and extremist websites, the PMS said that it was clear that this was a complex issue and one that required a wide range of tools to deal with it. The Home Secretary would be saying more in her statement this afternoon but the […]

PAC Report on higher education

Asked if the Prime Minister minded if universities failed, the PMS said that there had been a lot of speculation on the conclusions of the report. We had set out some proposals and they would not actually be implemented until next year. The Office for Fair Access (Offa) was still waiting to hear the details […]

» Monday, June 6, 2011

Strikes

Asked whether the Prime Minister had made up his mind on possible new rules for the right to strike, the Prime Minister’s Spokesman (PMS) told the assembled press that the position remained the same; we didn’t currently have any proposals to amend the strike laws but the Prime Minister had said in the past that […]

Original PMOS briefings are © Crown Copyright. Crown Copyright material is reproduced with the permission of the Controller of HMSO and the Queen's Printer for Scotland. Click-use licence number C02W0004089. Material is reproduced from the original 10 Downing Street source, but may not be the most up-to-date version of the briefings, which might be revised at the original source. Users should check with the original source in case of revisions. Comments are © Copyright contributors. Everything else is © Copyright Downing Street Says.

» Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Southern Cross

Syria

Departmental budgets

Energy prices

Sentencing

Afghanistan

» Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Scottish referendum

NHS reform

Misc

NHS reform

Yemen

Prevent

PAC Report on higher education

» Monday, June 6, 2011

Strikes

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