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» 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)

Cabinet Committees

Put that the Deputy Prime Minister (DPM)was chairman of five Cabinet Committees, deputy chairman of seven, and chairman of five sub-committees, and which ones were the new jobs, and had the job of chairman to the animal rights activists sub-committee just been given in place of giving up Constitutional Affairs, the PMOS said that Mr. Prescott was chairman of nine committees, whereas he was deputy chairman of seven. The PMOS said that he was chairman of Domestic Affairs, Public Health, Housing and Planning, Inspection, Post Office Network, Aging Policy, Local and Regional Government, Local Government and Strategy and Performance and Animal Rights Activists. Jack Straw had taken over the chairmanship of Constitutional Affairs and the Electoral Committee in line with his responsibility, but the DPM had taken over Housing and Planning, Inspection, Post Office Network, Aging Policy, Local and Regional Government, Local Government and Strategy and Performance and Animal Rights Activists.

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

Unemployment

Put that unemployment was the highest for three years, the PMOS said that employment was the highest, and if people looked at the number of people out of work, and if the inactivity figures were taken into account, they were going down.

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

Vauxhall Job losses

Asked if the Government was worried about the job losses at the Vauxhall car plant, the PMOS said that we were working with the company to try and give them as good a chance as possible of getting the new Astra project. We were obviously deeply disappointed about the job losses, but welcomed the fact that they were voluntary, and not compulsory.

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

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» Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Deportations

Nuclear Power

Immigration

Asylum Seekers

Deputy Prime Minister

Cabinet Committees

Unemployment

Vauxhall Job losses

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