Morning press briefing from 9 May 2008

Briefing from the Prime Minister's Spokesman on: Scotland, economy, Burma and Environment Agency

• Downing Street press briefings explained

Scotland

Asked if it was correct that the Prime Minister had not replied to David Cameron's recent letter on Scotland, the Prime Minister's Spokesman (PMS) replied that this was correct.

Asked why the Prime Minister had not replied, the PMS replied that we were still considering our response, but the Prime Minister gave a fairly clear and comprehensive response in his previous letter sent on Wednesday evening.

Asked if it was still possible that there could be a reply, the PMS replied that the Prime Minister had given a clear and comprehensive response on Wednesday.

Asked if the Prime Minister had any plans to speak to Wendy Alexander over the weekend, the PMS replied referred Lobby to the innumerable answers he had given on this already this week, which was that discussions between the Prime Minister and his Labour Party colleagues were not a matter for him to comment on.

Economy

Asked for the Prime Minister's view on the rise in mortgage costs and house repossessions, the PMS replied that the Government's view was set out by Caroline Flint in terms of what we were doing in order to help people who were finding it difficult to meet their mortgage costs at the moment. Repossession rates remained at around one third of the rate that we saw in the early 1990s, but the Government did want to make sure that everything was being done to help households so that repossession was only ever a last resort - hence the announcements that were made this morning by Caroline Flint and Alistair Darling.

Put that in some areas the rates were much higher, 49% in Oldham for example, the PMS replied that on specifics it was best to speak to the Treasury or DCLG. But in aggregate, the rates we were seeing at the moment remained at around one third of the rate we saw in the early 1990s.

Burma

Asked for more reaction on the situation in Burma, the PMS replied that on Burma, clearly this was a very significant crisis and urgent access was essential. We were pressing the Burmese authorities as a matter of urgency to address the barriers to rapid access for staff and suppliers, and to allow international agencies to disperse relief to the worse affected areas within Burma now.

Environment Agency

Asked if was the Prime Minister's decision to appointment Chris Smith to Chair of the Environment Agency, and did this not look like cronyism, the PMS replied that there were well established processes for making these appointments. Whoever gets appointed to these jobs did so on the basis that they are the best available candidates for the job.