Briefing from the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman on: PM’s Science Speech, Drugs, Stephen Byers/Rail, Women in the Armed Forces, Transport, Pakistan/India and Street Crime.
PM’s Science Speech
Asked whether the Prime Minister had been referring to GM crop protestors and animal rights activists when he had spoken briefly last night about those who drowned out rational scientific argument, the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman (PMOS) said that the Prime Minister believed firmly in the need to have a rational debate on science based on argument rather than the actions of a few individuals. It was not for him to start specifying whom he had in mind.
Pressed as to whether he was talking about GM crop protestors and animal rights activists, the PMOS said that the Prime Minister had in mind those who tried to drown out scientific debate through their actions, rather than engage in rational discussion.
Drugs
Asked about the Government’s response to the Home Affairs Select Committee report on drugs policy, the PMOS said it was wrong to see the report as being solely about one subject. It was a thorough, thoughtful report, which dealt with the different aspects of the drug problem right across the board.
Obviously the Home Secretary would want to study it carefully and would respond fully before the summer recess. While he had believed it necessary and right to make it clear at the outset that we disagreed on the question of reclassifying Ecstasy, it did not mean that he was dismissing the report as a whole. He wasn’t. We shared the analysis of the Committee on a range of issues contained in the report, including the need to focus on Class A drugs, the need to concentrate on education and the issue of harm minimisation.
Stephen Byers/Rail
Asked for a reaction to today’s Daily Mail report suggesting that Stephen Byers had told representatives of the Paddington Survivors’ Group about his plan to put Railtrack into administration some time before making a Statement to the House of Commons - and despite his protestations at the time that he had only just taken the decision, the PMOS said that he would disagree with the account which had been published today.
Asked if we had any evidence to support our position, the PMOS said it was always difficult when people had different accounts of meetings that had taken place. Asked on what date the decision on Railtrack had been taken, the PMOS said he didn’t carry around that information inside his head. We had gone through the history of what had happened at the time. Our account had not changed.
Asked if he was implying that the Paddington Survivors’ Group representatives were lying by saying that Mr Byers had told them of his intention a month in advance, the PMOS said that the representatives had their account and the Department had its.
Questioned as to whether any other Secretaries of State had as many meetings with people as Mr Byers from which the participants emerged with different accounts, the PMOS said that it was always possible for people to have different accounts. Asked whether the Prime Minister had full confidence in Mr Byers, the PMOS said that the answer he had given to the same question last week had not changed.
Asked if he would accept that the decision to place Railtrack into administration was commercially sensitive, the PMOS said he would not disagree. However, we had said all we were going to say on the issue at the time. The position had not changed.
Women in the Armed Forces
Asked why the Defence Secretary was not making an oral Statement in the House regarding the issue of women in the armed forces, the PMOS said that as he understood it, the MoD had planned to make the announcement via PQ weeks in advance based on the advice from officials.
Put to him that MPs should be allowed to debate the issue, the PMOS said he would agree that of course MPs should be able to express their opinion. However, the PQ approach had been decided weeks ago.
Transport
Questioned about the Commission for Integrated Transport (CfIT) report which had been published today, the PMOS said that obviously we would want to study it in detail. The first review of the Ten-Year Transport Plan was due in July. It was at that point that the issues raised in the report would formally be addressed.
Pakistan/India
Asked whether the Prime Minister had spoken to President Musharraf and Prime Minister Vajpayee about the increased tension in Kashmir or whether he had any plans to do so, the PMOS said that the Prime Minister maintained regular contact with both President Musharraf and Prime Minister Vajpayee. Jack Straw also kept in contact with his Indian and Pakistani counterparts and would be visiting the region next week.
As Mr Straw had said yesterday, this was a crisis which the world could not ignore. No one was underestimating the seriousness of the situation. However, the way to deal with it was through dialogue with those involved.
The PMOS drew journalists’ attention to a statement put out by the Foreign Office concerning the evacuation of the High Commission in Pakistan. He underlined that this was related to a perceived security threat, rather than the conflict in Kashmir. In answer to further questions, the PMOS said that a number of High Commission staff and their dependants had been evacuated.
Asked whether the High Commission had been closed, the PMOS said no. Questioned as to whether diplomatic staff had been sent home, the PMOS said that we were reducing the level of diplomatic representation, so that undoubtedly would have some impact on the work of the High Commission.
Asked for further information about the type of threat, the PMOS said we never commented in detail on security intelligence. Questioned as to whether the security threat related to Al Qaida, the PMOS repeated that we never discussed intelligence issues. There was a terrorist threat and we had responded accordingly.
Asked if we were concerned about a report published in a German newspaper that 29 Al Qaida terrorists had been smuggled into Europe with the sole intention of carrying out terrorist attacks in Britain, the PMOS repeated that we never discussed intelligence matters. Obviously we kept all perceived threats under review. That said, he did not recognise the story in question.
Street Crime
The PMOS advised journalists that the Prime Minister had hosted the latest in a series of street crime meetings this morning. Asked who had attended, the PMOS said the cast list had included the Prime Minister, Lord Chancellor, Home Secretary, Stephen Byers, Alan Milburn, Andrew Smith, Estelle Morris, Tessa Jowell, the Attorney General, Nick Brown and John Denham, in addition to representatives from the police and criminal justice agencies.
Asked why Mr Byers had attended, the PMOS pointed out that there were aspects of street crime which related to local government and transport. Asked to explain Tessa Jowell’s locus in tackling street crime, the PMOS pointed out that the Government was committed to diverting young people away from crime through sport and arts schemes.
Asked what progress we were making on bringing street crime down, the PMOS said that we were not in any way exaggerating how quickly we could get to grips with the problem. It would take time. The important point was that we had a strategy. The aim of the street crime meetings was to identify the bottlenecks which got in the way of implementing our strategy. That was why it was necessary to have such a strong representations across the board.
Asked to clarify the aims of the strategy, the PMOS said that we needed to tackle the roots of the problem. For example, £66 million was going towards truancy sweeps and tackling exclusion. We also wanted to speed up the judicial system, which was why we were setting up 67 street crime courts with specialist prosecutors and new video ID parades to fast-track cases.
In addition, we were stepping up policing by investing a further £67m from the budget for police operations. Ten metropolitan areas had been identified as crime hot spot areas, so 2,060 officers had been reassigned to the Safer Streets initiative. We were also tackling persistent offenders. Courts in the ten metropolitan areas had been given new powers to remand persistent young offenders to secure accommodation. We were also determined to break the link between drugs and crime by making drug treatment available within 24-hours for street crime offenders to help stop the cycle of reoffending.
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