Briefing from the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman on: Tuition Fees and Speeding Fine/Compensation for Victims.
Tuition Fees
Asked if the vote on tuition fees would take place this month, the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman (PMOS) confirmed that was the case. Asked if it would be on the 27th, the PMOS said yes. Asked if the vote would still go ahead even if Lord Hutton decided to publish his Report the next day for example, the PMOS said that it wasn’t his policy to answer hypothetical questions. January 27 was the date when the vote on tuition fees would take place. Lord Hutton would publish his Report whenever he was ready to do so. Put to him that surely Downing Street had considered such a scenario to be a distinct possibility, the PMOS repeated that Lord Hutton would report when he decided to do so. In the meantime, he had absolutely no intention of getting drawn into a speculative discussion about when that might be.
Speeding Fines/Compensation for Victims
Asked if the Prime Minister had been indicating his lack of enthusiasm this morning for the proposed use of speeding fines by saying that the proposals were just for consultation, the PMOS said no. He had simply been pointing out the reality of the situation. The recommendation had been set out in the Green Paper. Compensation for victims was an issue which we had no intention of running away from. Some people appeared to be suggesting that speeding did not particularly matter. That view was wrong. It mattered very much since, as everyone knew, speeding killed. It also created victims. Sometimes the perpetrators could be identified, sometimes they couldn’t. It was for the latter reason that a system of compensation needed to be set up. One proposal was to use the revenue raised through speeding fines. The point the Prime Minister had been making this morning was that this was still just a proposal which would undergo consultation. As ever, it would not be helpful to pre-empt the outcome of that process.
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