Press briefing from the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman on: Avian Flu meeting, Suspected Terrorists on bail and EU informal summit
Avian Flu meeting
Asked about the Prime Minister’s Avian Flu meeting the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman (PMOS) said that the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) were putting out a press release. It talked about putting guidance on bio security out to the poultry industry including to what was known as the "hobby" poultry farmers, in other words those that had a few birds. They also talked about getting guidance out to the industry on worker safety and about how we could have a common database on poultry throughout the country. It was worth noting that the NFU had stressed and everybody agreed, including both World Health Organisation and the Food Standards Agency that UK poultry was safe. Avian Flu presented no human health threat from eating poultry products. We were agreed with the NFU.
Suspected Terrorists on bail
Asked about bail being granted to 4 terror suspects awaiting deportation, the PMOS said that Hazel Blears had released a statement which whilst expressing disappointment stressed two things. First, that this in no way prejudged the outcome of the decision on deportation. Second, that we would also be asking Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) to impose strict bail conditions. Asked if this played into the Prime Minister’s stated frustrations with the system, the PMOS said that the important thing was that we treated this case as a stand-alone case. The Prime Minister’s view that we now had different circumstances to contend with was on the record. A point that was underlined by the Home Secretary at Cabinet this morning.
EU informal summit
Asked about the summit, the PMOS said it was very much about debating the issue of how the EU met the challenge of globalisation in order to get the priorities right in the EU before we got to the December Summit on future financing. Hampton Court was not about future financing. As the Prime Minster had said in his letter to EU leaders this morning he would make every effort to get an agreement on future financing at the December Summit.
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