Briefing from the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman on: Higher Education Bill, Hutton Report, UK Visas and WMD.
Higher Education Bill
Asked what the Education Secretary had told Cabinet this morning about the Higher Education Bill, the PMOS said that Mr Clarke would be making a Parliamentary Statement shortly, but in the Prime Minister’s view, the Bill would widen access to higher education, provide more money for universities which needed the investment, abolish upfront fees and provide a good student package, particularly for poorer students. He would also draw attention once again to the fact that those countries which were widening participation, such as Australia, Canada and New Zealand, had a similar system to the one we were planning to implement. He also believed that this was a very progressive policy, as would become apparent once the detail had been announced. Asked if the Prime Minister would be in the House for the Education Secretary’s Statement, the PMOS said not as far as he was aware.
Asked about Parliamentary tactics and handling, the PMOS said it was clear that there was going to be a vigorous and vibrant discussion amongst MPs about the Higher Education Bill in the days and weeks to come. The important thing was that people recognised and understood the coherence of the package, the objectives of it and the safeguards within it. What had been produced today obviously flowed from the consultation, dialogue and discussion which Charles Clarke and Alan Johnson had had over recent weeks with their parliamentary colleagues. The ‘tactics’ were simple - for all Ministers to engage, debate, articulate and explain the arguments and the policy. Asked if any Cabinet Minister had expressed misgivings about the policy, the PMOS said no. Asked if there had been any warning that the basic principle of getting more money into universities would be undermined by the concessions, the PMOS said no. He added that he thought it would be more helpful if people exercised a little patience and waited for the details of the Bill to be announced before pre-judging its contents.
Asked about the prospect of getting the legislation through Parliament, the PMOS said that the Chief Whip was not in the business of prospecting. Everyone recognised that this was going to be one of the significant issues facing the Government in the coming weeks and there would be a vigorous debate before the Second Reading.
Questioned further about the Bill, the PMOS drew journalists’ attention to Professor Colin Campbell’s comments on Radio 5 this morning in response to remarks attributed to the Russell Group when he had pointed out that no one had seen the Bill yet. Asked the Prime Minister’s view on the Russell Group’s remarks, the PMOS said that Professor Campbell was a spokesman for the Russell Group. He had said today, "The piece is entirely misleading. The Russell Group has supported the thrust of legislation for years. No one has seen the Bill yet". As the Prime Minister had articulated many times, he believed that it was important to get more funding to universities, to have a fair system of repayment, to widen access and ensure that people from poorer backgrounds were not disadvantaged. That was what we were doing.
Hutton Report
Asked if the Hutton Report had been touched on in Cabinet, the PMOS said yes, in the context of a general discussion. He would give no more detail. Asked if he could say anything about the timing of the publication of the Report, the PMOS said he had nothing to add to what we hadn’t said earlier in the week.
US Visas
Asked if the Government was putting pressure on the US to extend their October 2004 deadline to end the visa waiver scheme for some British passport holders, the PMOS acknowledged that there was an issue here, but it was not anything like the scale which this morning’s reports had suggested. He pointed out that over 99% of British nationals had machine-readable passports (passports with two lines of letters and numbers on the back page). Since November 1991, all British passports issued in the UK had been machine-readable. People with these passports would be able to continue to travel to the US as they did now, under the visa waiver scheme, after the introduction of the new US arrangements on 26 October this year. The issue related to the less than 1% of people who would not have a valid machine-readable passport after this date and who would need to obtain a visa if they wished to travel to the US. Obviously they would wish to consider whether they wanted to renew their passport before that time. People doing so after 26 October would also have to apply for a visa.
Questioned again as to whether the UK was pressing the US to extend the October deadline, the PMOS said that we were working closely with the US to minimise the effect on British travellers. However, at this stage he was unable to point to what the outcome of the consultations would be. Obviously, the US recognised that, without careful handling, these new arrangements could have an adverse effect on visitor numbers to the US.
Asked to explain why machine-readable non-biometric passports issued after 26 October 2004 were not acceptable to the US authorities when machine-readable non-biometric passports issued before that date and since November 1991 were, the PMOS said that those were the terms. His knowledge of the subject had come to an end and he suggested journalists directed any further questions elsewhere. Asked when biometric data would begin to be stored on British passports, the PMOS said that this would begin to happen during the course of 2005.
WMD
Asked for a reaction to a report from the Carnegie Endowment for Peace think-tank in the US relating to the veracity of intelligence regarding the existence of WMD, the PMOS said that he hadn’t seen the report, although he had seen today’s FT story about it. He drew journalists’ attention to what the Prime Minister had said in the House yesterday about WMD, as well as Saddam Hussein’s systematic violation of countless UN Resolutions between 1991 and the conflict last year.
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