Press briefing from the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman on: Counter-Terrorism, Birmingham Disturbances, Syria and Informal European Summit
Counter-Terrorism
Asked if the Prime Minister agreed with the Delivery Unit that the UK’s counter-terrorism strategy was immature, the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman (PMOS) said that first of all we should recognise what action had been taken on counter-terrorism in the period since 9/11. By 2007 we will have doubled expenditure to over £2billion. We have already introduced a range of counter-terrorism legislation and were currently introducing more counter-terrorism legislation.
Without wishing to talk too much about leaked documents, in counter-terrorism there was a constant need for procedures to be constantly reviewed and updated to make sure that they were equal to the threat, a threat which constantly changed. We would constantly review the procedures to make sure that the response was correct. Put to him that he hadn’t responded to the criticism in the report of the Government’s strategy, the PMOS said that in terms of the way that the Government managed counter-terrorism we should remember that it was this Government that introduced the post of security co-ordinator and therefore it was this government which had driven through the process of co-ordination. Did that mean that we had to keep the process under constant review? Yes, but that would be the same in any counter-terrorism response. It had to be constantly updated. You could not stand still. It was in that light that these reports should be seen.
Asked if we therefore recognised the specific criticisms of the report, the PMOS said that he recognised that already we had developed the counter-terrorism capacity a lot. What he also recognised was the whole reason why reports like this were commissioned was because we were well aware that we had to be constantly self-critical and that we continued to constantly develop our response. That was what we would do. Questioned further the PMOS said that this was a serious piece of work commissioned for a serious purpose and it was part of the constant process of review.
Birmingham Disturbances
Asked for a response to the violence in Birmingham on Saturday in which a man was killed, the PMOS said that the Prime Minister was obviously keenly aware of what went on in Birmingham and was also keenly appreciative of the efforts of the police and those in the community wjo had responded to the situation. He commended the efforts of both the police and those in the community who were working to resolve matters. Obviously he couldn’t go into further detail because of the ongoing investigation.
Syria
Asked if we support sanctions being imposed on Syria in the light of the Mehlis report commissioned by the UN, the PMOS said that Mr Mehlis was making his report to the UN tomorrow. We fully supported the call for a foreign ministers session at the UN and we fully supported those who said this was a very serious matter and Syria needed to live up to its international obligations. What was important was that we let the UN process go forward. That was as much as we could say at this stage. It was clearly a very serious report which required a very serious response.
Informal European Summit
Asked if the Prime Minister thought that Angela Merkel should attend the summit, the PMOS said that it was a matter for the German government who represented Germany and as a matter of fact Chancellor Schroeder was still Chancellor, the invitation was to Chancellor Schroeder and the anticipation was that he would be there. He would remind journalists that the purpose of the summit was to have a debate on how the EU responded to globalisation and it was President Barroso had set out in The Times this morning, that he did not believe that the status quo was an option. We fully supported that.
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