Briefing from the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman on: the Hutton Report and Higher Education Bill/Tuition Fees.
Hutton Report
In the light of questions regarding further submissions to the Hutton Inquiry as reported in today’s FT, the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman (PMOS) drew journalists’ attention to what James Dingemans, Counsel to the Inquiry, had said on Thursday 25 September to clarify the issue: "The parties have been given the opportunity to put in any further written submissions and have been given the opportunity to correct any factual errors they say have been made with any written submissions". Today’s FT story had simply been referring to that. The Government’s submission had been made shortly after the conclusion of the Inquiry. This was not new evidence.
Asked if the Government had put in a generic submission or whether it had put in a submission containing clarifications on behalf of individual Government witnesses, the PMOS said that it would have been a Government submission. Asked how many Government witnesses had had items to amend or clarify, the PMOS said that he understood why he was being asked these questions. Journalists obviously felt they had articles to write and broadcast time to fill while we awaited the publication of the Report. That was a matter for them. However, since the Inquiry’s conclusion, we had been scrupulous in saying nothing in advance of publication. If that was an inconvenience to journalists, then that was just something they would have to learn to live with because that was the position we were going to stick with. We had no intention of feeding any media speculation. All he was saying was that if people had been inferring from what had been said and written this morning that there was ‘fresh evidence’, that was clearly wrong. It referred, as James Dingemans had said, to an "opportunity to put in any further written submissions". Questioned further, the PMOS said that the Government had taken up the opportunity to make points and arguments. Put to him that he appeared to be suggesting that the Government had been taking the opportunity to go beyond correcting factual errors, the PMOS pointed out that all the parties had been given the opportunity to put in further written submissions. That was all that this was about.
Asked repeatedly how long the submission had been, the PMOS said he didn’t have that information to hand. Asked to give an approximation, the PMOS said that he had absolutely no intention of getting drawn into a discussion about a judicial inquiry which had yet to report. There wasn’t long to wait until publication. Asked why he was so reluctant to say whether the submission had been significant or not, the PMOS underlined that the Government did not plan to comment on the Hutton Inquiry until Lord Hutton had presented his report to the Government and it had been made public. He added that if he was having to answer questions about the issue, it was because of information that was appearing in the media in the interim - and even then, all he was doing was drawing the context of it to journalists’ attention. Put to him that they weren’t the ones who had set up the Inquiry and that they could be perceived to be the ‘victims’ of a situation ’set in train’ by the Government, the PMOS said that as we had underlined from the outset, Lord Hutton should be given as much time as he felt was necessary to produce his report. He was the person who would determine when it would be published once his work had concluded. In the meantime, we would all have to exercise some patience. Asked if the Prime Minister had taken advantage of the opportunity to make a further submission, the PMOS repeated that he had no intention of providing a commentary on the process, as he had made clear several times already.
Asked when the submission had been made, the PMOS said that it would have been done shortly after the conclusion of the Inquiry. He didn’t have a precise date. Questioned as to whether it would have occurred after Sir Kevin Tebbit’s late evidence session, the PMOS repeated that he didn’t have the precise date.
Asked if the Prime Minister would be making Statement to the House of Commons on the day of the Report’s publication, the PMOS said that Peter Hain had made an announcement towards the end of last year that the Prime Minister would make a Statement in the Commons and Lord Falconer would make one in the Lords. A debate on the issue would take place at some point after that.
Higher Education Bill/Tuition Fees
The PMOS confirmed that the Higher Education Bill would be published on Thursday, when the Education Secretary, Charles Clarke, would make a Statement to the House. This meant that there would not be a Prime Ministerial Press Conference this week.
delicious
digg
facebook
