Press briefing from the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman on: Gas Supply, Incapacity Benefit and Child Support Agency
Gas Supply
Asked about the instability of Europe’s dependence on gas supply from Russia, the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman (PMOS) said there were three factors to consider, firstly the immediate supply situation for this country was not affected in any substantial way, as Malcolm Wicks had indicated. Secondly, there were clearly problems in terms of Europe and thirdly there was a longer-term issue of security of energy supply. In terms of the immediate situation for Europe the EU gas storage would act as a temporary buffer.
The Commission was holding a technical meeting at official level tomorrow to establish the facts. A DTI official would be in attendance. Clearly we believed that it was in the interests of everybody, not least Russia and the Ukraine, that this issue be resolved a quickly as possible. The Prime Minister himself highlighted the potential problems of energy security and supply at the Hampton Court Summit last November. He said then that he believed that the EU needed to come up with a coherent energy policy. These events had underlined the Prime Minister’s thinking around that argument. This was something that we would pursue.
Asked whether Russia’s decision would have any affect on our nuclear energy review, the PMOS said that security of supply was one of the reasons behind what the Prime Minister had said at Hampton Court and in setting up the review. It was however not a knee jerk to one particular event. It had to take into account the need for security and diversity of supply further down the line as such that was one of the elements that had to be considered. What he would not do however was draw a neat line between one specific event and the review as that was not the right thing to do. The issue of security of supply had already existed before this event but clearly this event underlined that issue.
Put to him that the Prime Minister had got into difficulty at PMQs by saying that British Gas was cheaper than European gas and whether there was any truth to the allegation that some EU members protected domestic consumers at the expense of wider obligations to peripheral partners through their gas lines, the PMOS suggested that sounded like an advanced gas question more appropriate for the DTI to answer. There were all sorts of reasons why the Prime Minister felt it was right to have a coherent European energy policy. One of them was that everyone had a different approach and it was sensible to have a coherent approach to help make the industry more effective and efficient.
Incapacity Benefit
Put to him that the Government’s proposal’s for reform of incapacity benefit did not seem to be as radical as had previously been suggested, the PMOS said that the time to judge the radical nature of the proposals was when they were published at the end of January. Before we got into a discussion of how radical they were we should look at the core of the issue. The core of the issue was the question of people living in deprived areas on incapacity benefit and finding themselves in a vicious cycle where they found it difficult to get off incapacity benefit and into work as 90% of people on incapacity benefit wanted.
The proposals should be judged by the outcomes they achieved in terms of encouraging people to move from incapacity benefit into work and when they were published people would see how they would help people to become more independent. Asked if it would be wrong to suggest that saving some of the £15billion per year spent on incapacity benefit might also be part of the thinking, the PMOS said that the primary purpose was to get people back to work and given the population trends that would help the economy. What was most important though was helping individuals overcome the difficulties in getting back to work.
Asked if the Prime Minister was surprised to discover that his constituency of Sedgefield was in the top 100 incapacity recipient list, the PMOS said that he would not discuss individual constituencies. The list highlighted the connection the between the high numbers of people who were deprived and the high number of people on incapacity benefit and breaking that vicious circle was at the heart of these proposals. Of course there were real problems that people had where they needed support and we would continue to provide that. What the Government would also do however was to provide help for those who wished to get back into the job market.
Asked for further detail on the role of GPs concerning incapacity benefit, the PMOS said that this was an issue that had to be looked at in the round and we should wait to look at the full proposals when they were published.
Child Support Agency
Put to him that John Hutton had suggested more powers for the Child Support Agency (CSA) including perhaps putting electronic tags on fathers who failed to support their children, the PMOS said that John Hutton had actually said that he would be talking about the future of the CSA when Parliament returned. It was better to wait until then.
delicious
digg
facebook
