Morning press briefing from 29 February 2008

Briefing from the Prime Minister's Spokesman on: Prince Harry and plastic bags

• Downing Street press briefings explained

Prince Harry

Asked for the Prime Minister's view of the arrangements that were in place for Prince Harry in Afghanistan and did he think it was a shame that it had broken down and looked like he would have to come back, the Prime Minister's Spokesman (PMS) replied that in terms of the decisions that would be, or were being made by the chain of command, that was something that obviously we would not be commenting on. These were operational matters and decisions based on a range of criteria by the people who were working with Prince Harry. On the UK media, we supported what Sir Richard Dannatt had said about the media blackout requested by the MoD, and his thanks to the UK media for responding in the way that they did.

Asked if it was cause for concern that the international media had led to the agreement being broken down in terms of the security arrangements that would have to be put in place, the PMS replied that she would not comment on the international media situation. But as she had said, the Prime Minister supported the UK media's handling of this, and obviously what happened now with Prince Harry's deployment was an operational decision.

Plastic Bags

Asked what the Prime Minister was going to do to stop Government departments spending money on millions of plastic bags, the PMS replied that the point here was about plastic bags being used in Government marketing campaigns for example and that the COI already had a procurement system in place that aimed to reduce carbon emissions and other waste such as plastic bags. Following the Prime Minister's announcement today we could expect that any use of such single-use plastic bags for these campaigns would be reduced in line with his aims for the wider business community.

Asked if the Government was putting figures on this, the PMS replied that she did not have those to hand, and that people should check with the COI for details.

Asked for any details on how the Prime Minister intended to move forward on the idea of getting supermarkets to use less plastic bags, as there was a suggestion that there could be legislation in the next month or two, the PMS replied that the Prime Minister had set out in his article that we were already looking at various schemes around the world and how effective they were, as well as the voluntary schemes that were already in place in the UK. We would work towards whichever specific policy did that best, but she would not be pre-empting future decisions that would be taken on this.

Asked if the Government thought there should be a much wider reduction in plastic packaging in supermarkets on fruit and vegetables for example, the PMS replied that DEFRA were already working with retailers on packaging, to look at how we could reduce waste from that particular source.

Asked if something on this would appear in the Climate Change Bill, the PMS replied that she was not going to pre-empt future decisions. We were looking at the schemes and their effectiveness, but as the Prime Minister said, he was prepared to take strong measures to ensure that waste from plastic bags was reduced.