Briefing from the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman on: Unemployment Statistics, Education, Iraq and Immigration.
Government Targets
Asked how many targets across Government had been replaced or removed entirely over the last six months, the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman (PMOS) said that he didn’t have the figures to hand. On a more general point about targets, however, it was important for people to recognise that they existed to achieve outcomes and to set national standards. Whether we were talking about health or education, the process was here to stay because that was precisely what they had done. The refinement and adaptation of targets did not mean that we were abandoning the process of setting national standards and trying to achieve them. On the contrary. They had played - and continued to play - an important part in raising national standards overall. Asked if he would agree that targets were changing in part, the PMOS said that reported changes in health targets related to the fact that the Commission for Healthcare Audit and Inspection Improvement (CHAI) would be taking over responsibility for setting standards. As CHAI had made clear today, reports that the hospital star-ratings system was being abandoned were wrong. They were not. CHAI would want to examine how the ratings were applied to see whether they were still relevant and if they needed to change. The actual process of ratings and setting targets, however, remained.
EU Defence
Asked for a reaction to today’s FT splash suggesting that an Anglo-French defence force could be set up, the PMOS said that this idea was nothing new. It had been announced at the Anglo-French Summit last November. The Summit Communiqué had stated, "Building on the success of Operation Artemis in the Democratic Republic of Congo, we propose a new initiative for the EU to focus on the development of its rapid reaction capabilities to enhance its ability to respond to UN requests in short-term crisis management situations." In answer to further questions, the PMOS said that it was important to be clear what the proposal was about. It was about identifying the personnel who might take part in initiatives to deal with short-term management crisis situations and making sure that they would know how to work together should the need arise. This was not about permanent capacity. There would, of course, be discussions about this matter in the EU Political and Security Committee. The important thing was to recognise the fact that, as with all aspects of EU defence, the initiative would be complementary to NATO, not in competition with it. Asked what representations had been made to the US about the plan, the PMOS said he did not think that the idea would come as any surprise to the Americans. Questioned as to whether the initiative might involve future peace-making ‘hard-hatted’ tasks, in contrast to the role of the EU Rapid Reaction Force, the PMOS said that that was an over-interpretation of what was being proposed.
Constitutional Reforms
Asked the Prime Minister’s reaction to the criticisms from the Constitutional Affairs Select Committee suggesting that the Government was rushing through its proposals for constitutional change, the PMOS said that as he understood it, the consultation for the proposals would last for some eighteen months, so we did not think anybody was rushing anything through. The position of the judiciary had changed during that period. What we were trying to do was to clarify the role of politicians and the judiciary and guarantee the independence of the latter. We believed that people now had a better understanding of what we were proposing to do than they perhaps had had at the start of the process.
Libya
Asked what action the Libyans would need to take before the Prime Minister would agree to meet with Colonel Gaddafi, the PMOS said that it was important to take things one step at a time. The first step had been made on 19 December 2003 when Libya had made an historic announcement on WMD. The next step was today’s meeting with the Libyan Foreign Minister, which was happening at a time when progress was genuinely being made on the WMD issue. Obviously we wanted to see a continuation of that progress. It was not impossible that further steps might be taken further down the road, but we were not yet at that point.
Questioned as to whether the case of WPC Yvonne Fletcher would be discussed at today’s meeting with the Libyan Foreign Minister, the PMOS said that the investigation into WPC Fletcher’s murder was an operational matter for the Met Police - which, as the Libyans were well aware, we supported in full.
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