Briefing from the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman on: Germany, Child Poverty, Health, Youth Justice Pledge, Landmines, Gibraltar, Stephen Byers and Iraq.
Germany
The Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman (PMOS) advised journalists that the Prime Minister would be going to Germany on Sunday for a meeting with Chancellor Schroeder. Following a short press briefing and dinner, he would appear on ARD’s Sabine Christiansen Show, before returning to London later in the evening.
Asked why the Prime Minister was visiting Germany, the PMOS said that Germany was an important country. Prime Ministers met other world leaders - it was the kind of thing they did. Questioned as to whether the Prime Minister had been invited to Germany to help the SDP with its election campaign, the PMOS said that the Prime Minister would be meeting Mr Schroeder because he was the German Chancellor and head of the German Government.
Child Poverty
The PMOS said that the Chancellor would be making a speech in New York later today on child poverty. He would talk about the need for more debt write-off to help poor countries deal with the global slowdown. He would also focus on the Development Assistance Fund which he had been pushing for some time, as well as action against ‘Vulture Funds’ which were funds which could not profit from countries undergoing debt relief.
Health
The PMOS drew journalists’ attention to the latest monthly in-patient and out-patient waiting list and waiting time figures for the end of March which were being published by Alan Milburn today. Although the figures showed that good progress was being made around the country, they also showed that there had been mismanagement at one hospital in Bath, which skewed the national picture. The figures revealed that the number of NHS patients waiting more than thirteen weeks and twenty six weeks for an out-patient appointment was at its lowest level since records began. Bath excepted, only one patient had been waiting more than fifteen months for in-patient treatment in the whole of the NHS.
However, as a result of auditing at the Royal United Hospital in Bath, figures that had come to light showed that there would appear to be up to 280 people waiting over fifteen months. As had been announced last week, the Chair of the NHS Trust in question had resigned with immediate effect and the Director of Finance had been suspended. The Chief Executive was also no longer in post and had been suspended from taking any other position at that Trust. No one was saying that what had happened had been acceptable. Obviously it wasn’t. However, it did show that robust action would be taken to deal with failure when it came to light and it shouldn’t cloud the overall picture and the achievement of staff.
Youth Justice Pledge
The PMOS advised journalists that the latest youth justice figures showed that the Government once again had met its target to reduce the average time from arrest to sentencing for persistent young offenders. It was now four days below the target of seventy one days, as of February 2002. That meant the average time was currently 67 days.
Landmines
Questioned as to how a company in Docklands had been able to sell landmines in contravention of the 1998 Landmines Act, and whose responsibility it was to ensure it did not happen again, the PMOS said that the allegations which had been aired on the Today Programme this morning were being investigated. As a result, he was not able to say a huge amount more until that process had concluded. That said, it was for Customs and Excise to look at issues which related to export and international trade. The police also had the power to investigate the manufacture of anti-personnel landmines. Both were carrying out these separate roles in this case.
Clearly this was an area which the Government took very seriously. That was why we had taken a lead role in the international campaign to ban landmines. This had culminated in the Ottawa Convention which we had ratified through the Landmines Act in 1998. The Act was very clear in outlawing the manufacture and export of anti-personnel mines, in addition to any participation in trade. It also provided a very clear definition of what was and was not considered to be a landmine. It was now up to the competent authorities in this instance to look at the allegations and decide if and how this matter ought to be taken further forward.
Gibraltar
Asked by the Guardian whether Downing Street was worried about a report in today’s Times, based on letter from Geoff Hoon to Jack Straw, which suggested that Geoff Hoon was ‘getting involved in politics’ by taking an interest in the status of Gibraltar, the PMOS said that as journalists were well aware, we had a long standing convention that we did not comment on leaked documents. However, as Peter Hain had said in the House on 16 April during the debate on Gibraltar, "We will retain our full control over the military base on the rock which is of key strategic importance to us". Mr Hain had set out a clear red line. Negotiations on the status of Gibraltar as a whole, however, were continuing. Nothing could change without a referendum.
Questioned as to whether there was any possibility that we might allow Spain greater access to the military base, the PMOS said that there was an ongoing negotiation with the Spanish Government. The Prime Minister would be meeting Prime Minister Aznar at the EU-Latin America Summit in Madrid next Friday and also at Downing Street the following Monday. The fact that Mr Hain had been as explicit as he had been, however, should give a pretty clear signal of our standpoint on this issue. Asked whether the US had made any representations to the British Government about the military base, the PMOS said not as far as he was aware, although he was unable to account for every single conversation we had with our US allies about military issues.
Stephen Byers
Asked whether the Transport Secretary would remain in his post for the next six months, the PMOS congratulated the journalist for the honest way in which he had asked what was clearly a reshuffle question. As he knew well, we never answered them. We had made the position crystal clear over the last few days for the avoidance of any doubt.
Asked to clarify the position to which he was referring, the PMOS said that if he did so, it would simply give journalists another quote when this was a case of "not-much-to-write-about-so-let’s-get-another-actualite-on-the-day-statement-from-Downing-Street-about-yesterday’s-story". He advised journalists to look again at what he and his colleague had been saying since Tuesday. It was all there on the Downing Street website. Nothing had changed.
Asked to clarify the position today ‘just for the record’, the PMOS remarked that it must be a very slow news day. He repeated that the position remained exactly as it was. It had not changed. Asked whether the Prime Minister had full confidence in Mr Byers, the PMOS said yes.
Questioned as to whether there was any sense within Government circles that the affair might have done the Government’s reputation less damage had Mr Byers perhaps been more contrite in the House yesterday, the PMOS pointed out that Robin Cook had answered that question several times with great effect during his excellent Today Programme interview this morning.
Questioned by PA as to whether the importance of Sir Richard Mottram’s statement of 25 February in Mr Byers’ Parliamentary Statement of 26 February was that Sir Richard had said quite clearly that Martin Sixsmith was going to resign and that therefore Mr Byers had been right to say that he had resigned, or whether it was that he had made it crystal clear that Mr Sixsmith had said that the premature announcement of his resignation had changed everything and that he wasn’t going to resign any more - so therefore the acknowledgement of the muddle over his resignation was, as his lawyers would say, ‘in the bundle’, so Mr Byers would have been free to say whatever he liked in the Commons by mentioning ‘en passant’ Sir Richard’s statement, which was his way of acknowledging the muddle over the resignation, the PMOS - responding to a challenge from the Guardian to answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to the question - said that this was a mazy run into the box, but we’d been playing the same game for several days. It was clearly a case of ‘been there, done that’. Stephen Byers had made a Statement to the House yesterday. We had done several briefings. The position remained as set out. It had not changed.
Iraq
Asked whether the Prime Minister had reassured Alice Mahon and other MPs that we would ‘not do anything horrid’ to the Iraqis without the permission of the UN and EU, the PMOS said that the position on Iraq remained as it was when last expressed by the Prime Minister at Crawford. No decision had been taken in respect of military action against Iraq. That said, it was transparently clear that the Iraqi Government and Saddam Hussein were in breach of a large number of UN Resolutions. It had also been made clear that there would obviously be consultation with other international bodies, including the UN and EU, should we reach the point of action. However, we were not at that point yet.
Put to him that we could resume hostilities at any time because Iraq was in breach of the UN Resolution which had brokered the ceasefire at the end of the Gulf War, the PMOS said that as he had just set out, Iraq was clearly in breach of a number of UN Resolutions. Discussion was currently ongoing within the UN Security Council about agreeing the new ’smart sanctions’ against the Iraqi regime which would target more tightly any materials that could be used in an offensive capacity. That discussion process was due to come to a conclusion by the end of this month.
delicious
digg
facebook
