Press briefing from the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman on: Northern Ireland, Adoption, Community Cohesion, Middle East, Police Inquiry/No10 computers and Prisons/Home Office split
Northern Ireland
Put to the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman (PMOS) that the DUP had said that they needed to see evidence on the ground on policing, and how much time did that leave the Prime Minister, the PMOS said that what the Prime Minister had said was that people in Northern Ireland would watch to see words being translated into reality. How and when was a matter for Sinn Fein, so people should wait for them to say some more. Everybody equally knew that that the reality was that an executive Government would only be formed on the 26th March if two things happened. One was that the words had been translated into action, and the second was that the DUP committed to power sharing. Everybody knew what the parameters were, so we had to see how things moved forward. What that should not take away from was the genuinely historic significance of yesterday’s event. Anyone familiar with the history of Northern Ireland knew the significance of Republicans saying that they would support the police service in Northern Ireland. The PMOS said that it might seem normal in the rest of the UK; in Northern Ireland it had not been normal for all sections of the public to support the police. It now looked as though it would be, and that spoke for itself.
Asked if the deadline was midnight tonight or midnight Tuesday night, and if the Prime Minister or the Northern Ireland Secretary had not said anything by midnight tonight, did that mean that elections would go ahead, the PMOS said that that was his understanding. The PMOS also reiterated that we had made clear throughout that if at any point we believed that this was not going to result in a power sharing executive in which everyone supported the police, then that was a process which would not automatically carry on. What we wanted to have was elections to a power sharing executive in which everyone supported the police, in action as well as words.
Adoption
Asked if the Prime Minister had any plans this week to meet with Catholic Archbishops to discuss the adoption issues, the PMOS replied that we had been in constant contact with all those involved. We understood the very real and genuine work that the Catholic adoption agencies did, especially with those children who were hard to place. As the head of the adoption council said last week, that was work that was not just measured in terms of getting someone adopted, but it was also about the aftercare that went on for quite some time afterwards. As the Prime Minister had said in his statement, that was part of the reason why we did want to find a way that did not disrupt that role.
Asked what the Prime Minister would say to members of the Scottish Executive who wanted Catholic adoption agencies to be able to opt out, and also what would he say to the Catholic adoption agencies in Scotland who were threatening to challenge the equality law, the PMOS said that with regards to the second part of the question, he did not want to get into a hypothetical situation. It was better to see what people did when they saw the result of the resolution. The Prime Minister had two key points last week. One was that there should not be discrimination. The second was that the way we went about showing that should not put at risk the long-term care for these children. It was precisely to get a resolution of those two points that the Prime Minister was making those efforts.
Put that David Cameron had talked about giving 5 years to Catholic agencies so they could work things out, and was that overlong, the PMOS replied that if people looked at what the head of British Adoption agencies had said last week, he did talk about a substantial period of time being necessary. This was because the work with the difficult to place children did not stop at the moment of adoption; it had to carry on to ensure that the adoption worked. There was an adjustment period, and with the difficult to place children, that could be over quite a substantial period, but he would not get involved in a discussion about how long that was.
Community Cohesion
Asked what the Prime Minister’s reaction was to the poll today regarding young Muslims’ the PMOS replied that if people looked at the Prime Minister’s speech on 8th December 2006, what he said was that in the UK, there was a right to be different for communities, but also, a duty to integrate. On Wednesday, Ruth Kelly would announce grants to local authorities to help with community cohesion activities. That was precisely the sort of work that we were now engaged in. It was also why we had set up the Commission on Integration and Cohesion which would report in June. It was also why the Local Government White Paper published recently made clear that building cohesion and tackling extremism is not an optional extra for local authorities but must be at the heart of their role. It was an issue that we took very seriously, and it was one that the Prime Minister had been thinking about for some time.
Middle East
Put that on Friday, the Quartet was meeting in Washington for a Ministerial meeting, and was the Prime Minister going to be involved, the PMOS said that with regards to the Quartet, the Prime Minister was not going. In terms of overall involvement in the Middle East and in talking to people, the Prime Minister was involved.
Police Inquiry/No10 computers
Asked by the BBC’s Political Editor about the Sunday Telegraph story and the ITV denial from No10 and what was it Downing Street was denying, the PMOS said that the journalist had to put to him what it was that he wanted the PMOS to deny.
The journalist said that Downing Street had appeared to deny handwritten notes by the Prime Minister in relation to honours. The PMOS asked who had said that there were and what were they about.
The journalist said he had. The PMOS said that what we had responded to were specific allegations put to us by ITN and the Sunday Telegraph. The PMOS went on to say that if people had a further specific allegation, then they had to tell him what it was and who had made it.
The journalist continued that the Sunday Telegraph had made an allegation that there were written notes by the Prime Minister in relation to honours. The PMOS said that it was for him to respond to the Sunday Telegraph, and if people had a specific allegation, they had to make it, and tell him who the source was.
Channel Four’s Political Editor said that he had picked up from the PMOS an "angry" tone, and did we feel that the police were putting things into the public domain without reporting directly to Downing Street, the PMOS asked the journalist if he was really telling him that police involved in an ongoing investigation were leaking details to the press, because if he was, it was a very serious allegation.
Asked if that could be the only way in which some of the information could have got into the public domain, the PMOS said "you tell me". We believed that any conversations between the parties involved should be private.
Put that we had "rubbished" any idea of alternative computer networks, but the Mail on Saturday and "Guido Fawkes" website had both claimed that they had evidence of alternative email networks in No10 that linked up to the Labour Party, the PMOS said that we stood by what we said to ITN. There was only one email system at No10.
Asked if it would be possible for someone to "hop on" using a No10 computer onto the Labour Party network, the PMOS said again that there was only one email system at No10.
Asked further questions about the possibility of an external server, or the possibilities of sending Labour Party emails, and did only one system allow for more than one email address, the PMOS repeated that there was only one email system in No10. As the PMOS said on Friday, people in No10 could not access hotmail, gmail etc because of security reasons, and he was not aware of anyone who had more than one email address.
Asked if people could send political emails from the No10 account, the PMOS replied that he was not going to get into the details of the system. The claim that was put to us was that there was more than one system, and there is not. There is only one, and the police have had access to everything that went through the system.
Prisons/Home Office split
Asked if the Prime Minister accepted the Government miscalculated prison places as set out in the 2003 Act, the PMOS said that the Government had built nearly 20,000 extra places. HM Prison Kennett opened in Merseyside today, which could hold up to 350 prisoners. In terms of the 2003 Act, that was also about reducing the length of some sentences, as well as increasing others. It was getting the balance right that was important. Nobody was pretending that it was not tough, as it was. That was precisely why we had asked for another 8000 places.
Put that John Reid had set out that he needed a 2 ½ year timetable at the Home Office to "finish the job" and was that a timetable that the Prime Minister recognised and agreed with, the PMOS replied that John Reid had identified the timeframe for the process of reform. Nobody doubted that there was a need for reform, but equally, people should not forget the successes there had been, for example, reducing crime, or increasing the numbers of police officers. Therefore, it was not a wholly negative picture, but it was one where there were problems that still had to be resolved. The PMOS gave the example of the Sex Offenders’ Register, because 10 years ago, there was not a Sex Offenders’ Register; today, there were 33,000 names on it. With regards to the timeframe, John Reid was the person in charge of identifying the problems and resolving them. Therefore, we would take his analysis.
Asked if the Prime Minister had made up his mind about splitting up the Home Office, the PMOS said that that was a matter that had to be given serious consideration. It was being, and it would be seriously considered, as there were serious issues involved. Because the focus of it was in terms of counter-terrorism, it was a matter being dealt with with some urgency, but it would take some time.
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