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» Tuesday, November 22, 2005

Asylum

Asked if the Prime Minister was going to apologise for the Government's failure to meet the targets on asylum removals, the Prime Minister's Official Spokesman (PMOS) replied that we believed that we would meet the targets in the coming months. What it underlined was the difficulty of what it was we were trying to do, but we believed we would meet it. It was unfortunate that we did not meet it as per the original deadline, but given how far back we started, it still showed a considerable degree of progress.

Briefing took place at 14:00 | Read whole briefing | Comment (1)

Flu Vaccinations

Asked if Government departments had offered their staff flu vaccinations, the PMOS said it was important to get the issue in context. 14 million doses of influenza vaccine were ordered this year, and we reckoned that there were 11 million people in the "at risk" group. As with many large organisations, government departments could and did offer priority staff flu vaccines, but that was the same as with any big organisation. What that did not do, however, was impact on the GPs' flu vaccine stocks, because they were all ordered at the same time. As the DH had made clear, it had released an extra 400,000 vaccine stocks because of the increase of demand and they had also ordered an additional 200,000 which would arrive in time for January. The PMOS told journalists what seems to have happened was that the publicity in terms of avian flu had increased the number of people who were not in the "at risk" category had applied for a flu vaccine, even though we had stressed that we did not believe that the normal flu vaccine would be effective against avian flu.

Briefing took place at 14:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

Power Stations

Put forward that there was a breaking story that some power stations were reducing their output because of price increases, and was there anything the PMOS could add, the PMOS said: no. In terms of the gas situation, the vast majority of industry remained unaffected by it.

Briefing took place at 14:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

Licensing Law

Asked if the Prime Minister shared the same view as Paul Goggins regarding the number of incidents reported by police would increase as a result of the introduction of the Licensing Law, the PMOS replied that he presumed what Mr. Goggins was reflecting what Tessa Jowell had said. She said that inevitably, if the police focused on a particular area in policing, then inevitably, the number of arrests in the area would increase because police resources were concentrated on that area.

Briefing took place at 14:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

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» Tuesday, November 22, 2005

Asylum

Flu Vaccinations

Power Stations

Licensing Law

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