Briefing from the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman on: PM’s E-Summit Speech, War on Terror, Fire Dispute and Top-Up Fees.
PM’s E-Summit Speech
The Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman (PMOS) briefed journalists on the Prime Minister’s e-speech at the QEII Conference Centre today, even though he had a strong suspicion that it would not lead a single news bulletin or be a front page news story either today or tomorrow. He said the Prime Minister recognised that many people believed e-government to be an issue which was only of interest to anoraks or boffins. However, it was a subject to which he intended to return again and again because, like science, he believed it would determine not only the future of our economy, but also the future of our public services - whether the NHS, schools or the criminal justice system. Since 1997, it was an area in which we had made huge progress. We were now second best in the world, behind only the US and ahead of the rest of Europe and Japan. The Prime Minister would use his speech to announce plans to get every school and doctor’s surgery linked to digital broadband by 2006. Connecting to the internet would thus become as easy as switching on a light and would be ten times faster than the current technology. Put simply, it would mean no more egg timers. In practice, it would mean better and faster access to most sources of information, whether teaching aids, medical information, services such as the National Records Service, electronic prescriptions or appointment booking services. It could also be applied to other public sector areas, such as the criminal justice system, where no two parts of the system currently operated on the same computer packages. In total, £5.96bn had been allocated from the spending review to e-government, including £1bn for broadband.
Asked why we were trumpeting the fact that the UK was now second best in the world when we had aimed to be the best, the PMOS said that the Prime Minister would admit openly in his speech that we hadn’t met the target we had set. However, as others would point out during the course of the conference, to be second best in the world - behind only the US - was no mean achievement. That said, there was a lot more to be done, as the Prime Minister would detail in his speech.
Asked if we had decided not to publish the names of those countries below us in the league table because it would embarrass them, the PMOS said he wasn’t aware if we were planning to publish a list or not. He underlined that we were certainly not shy about admitting that we were top of the European league table and ahead of Japan. Equally, we openly acknowledged that more needed to be done. The use of e-commerce and ITC would not only improve the economy but would also modernise our public services. The Prime Minister would use his speech to set out the way that was already happening, pointing, for example, to a pilot scheme in a Northampton X-ray unit where an electronic appointments system had cut missed appointments from 9% to zero. Asked about the figures we had used to compile the league table, the PMOS said that they were part of an internationally recognised criteria which had been agreed world-wide with our competitors.
Asked if the Government felt that BT had let down it down over the rollout of broadband, the PMOS observed that you did not get to be second best in the world if you thought industry was dragging its feet. That said, there were certainly a number of other areas where we could do more, and as the Prime Minister would underline in his speech, we were determined to do all we could to continue this very important work.
Asked if the Prime Minister was getting involved in the subject because the target had not been met - in the same he had intervened on the issue of street crime, the PMOS said no. There was no sense of panic that we hadn’t met our target. Nor was there any sense of failure because, ultimately, we were still second best in the world. Of course the Prime Minister was not being in any way complacent. He would underline the Government’s commitment to the issue and would set out our determination to continue the work in this field in order to do even better in the future. Equally, however, he would ask people to recognise how far we had come in the past five years.
War on Terror
The PMOS drew journalists’ attention to an announcement by the Treasury who had stated that the Chancellor had instructed financial institutions to freeze any accounts belonging to the Benevolence International Foundation, which was involved in funding international terrorism. Asked for further detail, the PMOS said that there was strong evidence linking the organisation with Al Qaida and Osama bin Laden. The action, which had taken effect at one midnight past midnight, had coincided with similar action in the US. The Government was determined to cut off terrorist finances, as the Chancellor had said in the House of Commons yesterday. In the past year, some $100m worth of assets of more than 100 organisations and 200 individuals suspected of terrorist financing had been frozen.
In answer to questions about the Benevolence International Fund (BIF), the PMOS said that its Chief Executive Officer, Enaam Araout, had recently been indicted in the US for operating the organisation as a racketeering enterprise and providing material support to organisations including Al Qaida. The evidence linking the organisation to Al Qaida included personal contacts between senior BIF officials and Al Qaida operatives involved in the 1998 bombings of two US embassies in Africa.
Fire Dispute
Asked about the Deputy Prime Minister’s talks with the FBU, the PMOS said that Mr Prescott was likely to refer to the fire dispute during the Queen’s Speech debate in the Commons this afternoon. Later in the day, he would contact both sides, although obviously the primary emphasis would remain on discussions between the employers and the union. We were not hiding the fact that we wanted to achieve a consensus on the future of the fire service, but we remained firmly of the view that there was no reason why that shouldn’t be achieved without the prospect of further strike action and the probability of putting people’s lives at risk. We accepted that fire-fighters should be paid fairly - but within a modern fire service in which their efforts were focussed on the areas where they were needed. That meant introducing flexible working practices, being able to move staff where they were needed, working with other emergency services by sharing control rooms for example, and staff being trained to use equipment such as defibrillators. It also meant being able to combine the efforts of part-time and full-time staff. In whatever way we might move forward, it was clear that these issues - as well as the question of pay - had to be addressed.
Questioned as to whether a settlement might be reached before the Bain Review’s final conclusions, the PMOS said that we were in no way apologetic about trying to head off further strike action. We continued to believe that talks between the employers and the FBU were the way forward. That was why we were grateful that Professor Bain had agreed to bring forward the publication of certain elements of his review. However, it was important to recognise that there was more to the review than issues relating to pay and modernisation. Professor Bain was also looking at other more medium to longer term issues, such as the structure of the fire service, and these would be published in due course. The pace of the negotiations and any resolutions were largely a matter for the employers and the FBU. We believed that the Bain Review provided a sound basis for the two sides to begin talking about these issues. Asked if that meant that John Prescott ‘had been talking rubbish’ on Sunday when he had invited the FBU to put their own proposals on the table, the PMOS said no, of course not. He pointed out that the FBU themselves had said that they had their own suggestions. He was simply making the point that the Bain Review could inform the negotiations. If people had other ideas, then of course they were welcome to present them. However, these must address the issues which he had already set out.
Asked if we had detected a greater spirit of co-operation on the part of the FBU over the last few days, the PMOS said he was not a spokesman for the FBU. They could answer the question themselves. That said, he believed that there was a conviction within the country as a whole that a further strike was not going to help matters in any way. These issues were not going to go away or change as a result of industrial action. All that the further disruption would do was put people’s lives at risk for no good reason.
Top-Up Fees
Asked to confirm reports that the Chancellor had joined other Cabinet colleagues in opposing the idea of top-up fees, the PMOS said that journalists should exercise a little patience and wait for the review in January. Of course that was not to say that there shouldn’t be a debate as to how the funding gap in universities - the result of a legacy of under-investment - should be bridged. In the end, however, it was important to wait for the review.
The PMOS took the opportunity to congratulate Telegraph journalists for their front page splash today which had demonstrated their ability to access the DfES website. It was an excellent example of ICT in operation.
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