Downing Street Says » 2006

» Thursday, January 12, 2006

Iran

Asked if the Prime Minister had any thoughts on the talks in Berlin and the Iranian President's statement, the PMOS said the Prime Minister had spoken to Chancellor Merkel yesterday afternoon, and following the Foreign Secretary's meeting with his E3 counterparts we were heartened that we all seemed to be on the same page in terms of recognising the seriousness of developments. We were all agreed that this was a matter that needed to be urgently considered by the IAEA Board and as such we were moving toward the possibility of the UN Security Council considering the matter.

Briefing took place at 12:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

Iran

Asked who the Foreign Secretary was meeting in Berlin, and what was the message, the PMOS said that Jack Straw was meeting his counterparts from France and Germany. The message would be that the Prime Minister had spoken to Chancellor Merkel yesterday, and there was a recognition that the latest developments in Iran were serious. What we needed to agree was what happened next. We had argued for some time for a referral to the UN, and we believed it should be considered next by the IAEA Board. We hoped that that would be the case, and we were happy to go through the procedure and argue a case at each step of that process, and we would do so. The PMOS said that today was the starting point of that process.

Briefing took place at 12:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

Sex Offenders

Asked if the Prime Minister had had a full briefing from Ruth Kelly on the circumstances surrounding whether teachers were on or off List 99, the PMOS replied that Ruth Kelly had issued a statement that said that the procedure involved in this was one that, as the PMOS understood it, went back many years, and predated the current administration. Clearly, procedures, and public expectations around the issue of child protection had changed a lot in recent years, and it was therefore right to have a fundamental review of the process.

Briefing took place at 12:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

Deputy Prime Minister’s Council Tax

Asked if No10 was signed off to John Prescott's statement, the PMOS said that this had arisen from a misunderstanding dating back to 1997. The Deputy Prime Minister along with the Commons Fees Office had regarded Admiralty House as his primary residence. The Deputy Prime Minister believed he was paying council tax out of the 10% of his salary taken for benefits in kind for Admiralty House. The department, on the other hand, had continued the practice of the previous occupant of regarding it as his secondary home and they had paid the council tax at the rate appropriate for a secondary home. The Deputy Prime Minister having realised this misunderstanding now had paid the council tax owing in full dating back to 1997. He had set out the case in his written statement.

Briefing took place at 12:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

Rolls Royce

Asked what communication the Prime Minister had had with President Bush about Rolls Royce, the PMOS replied that we did not disclose on the Prime Minister's behalf discussions he had on commercial matters. We had always made it clear that we supported British industry, but we did not discuss individual conversations about either commercial matters, or ones with President Bush. They remained private.

Briefing took place at 12:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

Iran

Asked how did the Prime Minister feel about Germany not being willing to report Iran to the Security Council, the PMOS replied that first of all, people should wait for the official position of Germany and then we would respond.

Briefing took place at 12:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

Neil Kinnock/Education

Asked to comment on the Guardian interview with Neil Kinnock's views on education reforms, the PMOS said that the NAO report yesterday set out our position on education very clearly. The number of failing schools had halved since 1997. Equally, however, there was a lot more still to be done to bring all schools up to the same standard. That was precisely why we had to apply the lessons of those schools that had become successful, and apply it in a way which brought all schools up to the same level. In terms of selection, the White Paper only altered the rules of submission in one way, which was to toughen up the adjudicators' code by making their guidelines applicable for three years, rather than one year. In terms of the overall approach, it was to keep building on the success that we had had with City Academies and Trust schools, but equally, there was no change to the process.

Briefing took place at 12:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

Smoking

Put that the Government had said it was sticking by its manifesto commitment on smoking, but there now appeared to be a situation in which the Minister in charge of the policy had said she would vote against the line laid don in the manifesto, and was that a good way to run a government, the PMOS said that he thought that was not the position. The position was that the Government's manifesto was committed to putting in place a 95% ban. That remained the position of the Government, and the Government remained committed to, at its lowest level, that there should be a 95% ban.

Briefing took place at 12:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

» Wednesday, January 11, 2006

Smoking

The Prime Minister's Official Spokesman (PMOS) informed journalists that, having listened to the range of opinion on the issue, health ministers intended to hold discussions with MPs seeking to amend the bill to remove the exemption of pubs which don't serve food from the proposed ban. Following these discussions it was the Government's intention to allow its MPs, including ministers, a free vote on the amendment. Asked if the free vote was inconsistent with the Government's manifesto commitments, the PMOS said that the manifesto commitment was to ban smoking in 95 per cent of public areas.

Briefing took place at 11:00 | Read whole briefing | Comment (1)

Rail security

Asked what the point of the trial of airport-style scanners on the Heathrow express platform at Paddington was, the PMOS said that this was a pilot scheme to test methods of improving security at railway stations. In this instance the main purpose was to test the application of security equipment in a busy, modern railway station. Asked if everyone travelling to Heathrow would be scanned, the PMOS said no. People would be searched at random. The aim was to test the equipment to see how you could balance the need to insure this capability without impeding travel. This had been announced in early December last year.

Briefing took place at 11:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

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» Thursday, January 12, 2006

Iran

Iran

Sex Offenders

Deputy Prime Minister’s Council Tax

Rolls Royce

Iran

Neil Kinnock/Education

Smoking

» Wednesday, January 11, 2006

Smoking

Rail security

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