Downing Street Says » 2006

» Tuesday, January 17, 2006

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)

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)

Schools White Paper

Asked if the Prime Minister were disappointed that Lord Kinnock planned to come out against the white paper tomorrow, the PMOS said that Lord Kinnock would do what Lord Kinnock did. It was best for people not to comment or speculate on what someone might say, but rather comment on what they had said. People should wait and see. To respond in general terms about the education white paper, last week's NAO report set out precisely why the status quo was not an option. There were great improvements but the process was far from complete.

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

Iran

Asked if the Government was in favour of imposing sanctions on Iran, the PMOS said that it was important to recognise that this was a step-by-step process. The first important thing was to get people to recognise that there had been a development which the international community had to address as a whole. We were getting close to a consensus on that point. The second step was to start the process of agreeing that the best way to go forward was to refer the issue to the Security Council. Once you got to the Security Council, what you did then was another matter.

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

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)

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)

Reshuffle

Asked if they could expect any government changes this week, the PMOS said that it was quite a busy week already and as with other questions about reshuffles he would refer them to his previous non-answers.

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

Prostitution

Asked about the Government's recent proposals on prostitution, the PMOS said the Prime Minister fully supported the measures which had been proposed today. Fiona MacTaggart had done a very good job of explaining the Government's approach to this issue. Asked how legalising brothels fitted with the 'Respect' agenda, the PMOS said that we were not legalising brothels. The decision to allow 2 women to share the same premises for prostitution had been taken, as Fiona MacTaggart had said, for safety reasons. However if prostitutes were accused of being nuisance neighbours they would be treated no differently from anyone else.

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

Crime

Put to the PMOS that the Mayor of Middlesbrough, "Robocop" had said that the Government's crime policies were a great disappointment and people had been waiting eight years, the PMOS said that if you looked at the crime statistics, for instance in relation to burglary and vehicle crime reductions in those areas and the fact that overall crime was going down was sufficient answer. However the Government recognised that there were still areas such as violent crime where it needed to and was doing more. If you looked at the policies that the Government had developed on ASBOs, which dealt with low level crime, most people thought they were overdue but also certainly thought they were worth pursuing in relation to local crime at a local level.

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

Incapacity benefit

Asked about John Hutton's speech and the comments on compulsion and whether this was for new claimants or existing claimants, the PMOS said that there was a green paper coming at the end of the month and it was better to wait for that.

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

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» Tuesday, January 17, 2006

ID cards

ID cards

Schools White Paper

Iran

Iran

Education White Paper

Reshuffle

Prostitution

Crime

Incapacity benefit

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