Press briefing from the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman on: Algerian President’s Visit, Police Mergers, ID cards, tax credits, football and Intelligence and Security Committee
Algerian President’s visit
The Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman (PMOS) confirmed that we had reached an agreement with the Algerians on the framework on returning terror suspects to Algeria. These were called assurances.
Asked if the suspects would be visited by British Consulate representatives, and how could we ensure that they were not exposed to torture, the PMOS pointed people to our experience involving two individuals who were returned to Algeria. They had been released and were with their families. Suspects had benefited from the Charter for Peace and Reconciliation and the associated amnesty which was being introduced by the Algerian Government. What was important was that Algeria was a changed place, and it did have an improved record on human rights.
Asked if anybody from the British Consulate would be visiting the suspects this weekend, the PMOS replied that we would continue to monitor the situation and what happened to these individuals. In terms of the overall situation, it had improved quite considerably.
Asked for further information, the PMOS said that in terms of the individuals who had gone back voluntarily beforehand, the experiences were that they had now been released, and were with their families. The Charter which the Algerian Government introduced did mean that those people who returned could be released in this way.
Asked about monitoring, the PMOS said that it would be down to the Embassy to do so.
Police Mergers
Asked further about police mergers, the PMOS replied that the situation was as the Home Office had set out, which was that the consultation on this would continue, as John Reid had said last month. The PMOS said that Tony McNulty would be making a speech tomorrow, and he would set that out. There were two different issues. One was efficiency and effectiveness, which was what the HMIC report highlighted, and the other was local accountability. There was obviously a debate about how the two were reconciled, and that debate would continue.
Asked how we felt about Charles Clarke’s intervention, in which he said that the decision was weak, the PMOS said that that was probably based on some misreporting, which had said that a negative decision had been taken. The fact was that the consultation would continue, and it was about how we reconciled the two.
Put that Charles Clarke was talking very specifically about the Government’s failure to reach agreement over the Cumbrian and Lancashire forces, rather than any reports in general, the PMOS replied that in terms of the overall situation, it was as he had set out.
Asked if it was a question of money, and whether there was sufficient money to fund these mergers, and did we believe there was enough money, and if not, whose fault was that, the PMOS said that what he was not going to do was give a running commentary on a consultation process. The whole point of having a consultation process was to report to all interested parties, and we would continue to do that.
ID Cards
Asked if the Prime Minister was confident that the ID cards scheme would go ahead in the form that it was put before Parliament, the PMOS replied that he was not going to get into artificial deadlines. However, the introduction of the ID cards system remained broadly on track.
Tax Credits
Asked if the Prime Minister was happy with the way that the tax credits were working out, the PMOS said that it was a matter for the Treasury and they would talk about that. We had talked in the past about the real benefit that tax credits had brought to millions of families. People should bear that in mind.
Asked again by Bloomberg if the Prime Minister did not feel it was necessarily anything to do with him, but since he was the Prime Minister and the First Lord of the Treasury, the PMOS asked if the journalist wanted to put his question in a slightly different way.
Bloomberg asked if the PMOS would answer the question if he did, the PMOS said he would answer it in the way that he would, but he was not going to answer snide comments.
Asked if the Prime Minister had taken a close interest in the administration of tax credits, the PMOS replied that the Prime Minister had always kept a close interest in the administration of tax credits. As the Prime Minister had said at press conferences, whatever the difficulties and problems, people should bear in mind the real benefits that tax credits had been to millions of people.
Football
Asked if the Prime Minister thought that Zinadine Zidane should have behaved the way that he did in the final, the PMOS replied that since the Prime Minister had said football had been discussed over the lunch with the Algerian President, and as they were doing a press conference at that very moment, no comment was the safest thing to do.
Put that it was discussed at lunch, the PMOS said that he knew football had been discussed, therefore given that, people could make their own conclusions as to whether the incident was talked about.
ISC Report
Asked what was the point of having the Prime Minister’s committee on intelligence services if he had rejected one of the main proposals which was to have separate heads of the SIC and JIC, the PMOS said that in terms of the committee, it was not the Prime Minister’s committee.
The journalist said that it was the Prime Minister’s committee. The PMOS replied that it was an independent committee which reported independently. Therefore, like all committees, it was perfectly entitled to make an argument. Equally, Government was perfectly entitled to consider an argument and set out why it agreed or disagreed.
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