Briefing from the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman on: Cabinet Committees, NATO Summit, EU Summit, Waiting Lists, CSR, Iran and Northern Ireland.
Cabinet Committees
Asked again about reports that a new Cabinet Committee had been set up to monitor UK-US relations, the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman (PMOS) said that as he had told journalists this morning, we never commented on Cabinet Committees. Asked if he was suggesting that such a Committee did, in fact, exist, the PMOS said he was simply making the point that we never discussed Cabinet Committees. Put to him that we published an updated list of Committees at fairly regular intervals and that the list in the latest edition of Vacher’s did not record such a Committee, the PMOS referred journalists to the Cabinet Office who, he said, were more knowledgeable about Cabinet Committees than he was. Pressed repeatedly as to whether a Cabinet Committee on UK-US relations had been set up, the PMOS said that he would make the relevant enquiries on journalists’ behalf and they could ask their questions again at tomorrow morning’s briefing.
NATO Summit
Asked about next week’s NATO Summit in Turkey, the PMOS said that the two key elements would be Iraq and Afghanistan. As was well known, Prime Minister Alawi, on behalf of the Iraqi Government, had issued a request for help with training Iraqi troops. Since we were in favour of Iraqi-isation, we would consider this request positively, not least because we were already involved in such a process in Iraq. However, this was something that would need to be discussed by all our NATO colleagues, building on discussions which had taken place at the recent G8 Summit at Sea Island. The NATO Summit would also raise the issue of Afghanistan - hence President Karzai’s expected attendance - in which we would want to discuss the issue of security, particularly in terms of expanding ISAF’s role beyond Kabul. It went without saying that we remained committed to helping Afghanistan wherever possible. Asked if the Prime Minister had considered not attending the Summit following the bombings in Istanbul today, the PMOS said no.
Asked if NATO would discuss the possibility of sending troops to Iraq, the PMOS said that as we had stated at Sea Island, we saw NATO’s involvement in Iraq as being largely on the technical and training side. The fact that NATO countries, such as the UK, US and Poland, already had assets in Iraq was clearly useful. We believed that the best way to provide security was to train up Iraqi troops to provide it themselves.
EU Summit
Asked if the Prime Minister would attend an EU Summit next week to discuss candidates for the job of European Commission President, the PMOS said that as the Irish Presidency had stated, a meeting would only be held if there was sufficient consensus to produce agreement on a Commission President. We were anticipating that discussions would continue over the weekend. We would have to wait and see what the outcome might be.
Waiting Lists
Questioned about waiting lists and waiting times, the PMOS said that John Reid had explained today the position regarding waiting lists. He had said that while it was important to reduce the figures, the reality was that patients started counting the time from the moment of GP referral rather than when they were actually put on a waiting list. That was why he thought it would be useful to try to bring targets into line with the reality of patients’ expectations. However, that could only be done if the issue of capacity was addressed. Asked if that was what Dr Reid had meant by speaking of ‘hidden waiting lists’, the PMOS said yes. However, that was not to say that considerable progress had not been made in meeting the real need to count down waiting times. These were not phoney results. They were real. The point, however, was that the Government needed to go even further if it was to meet people’s expectations and needs.
CSR
Asked if the Cabinet had reached a final agreement on the CSR this summer, the PMOS said that a date had not yet been set for the CSR. Questioned as to whether the ongoing negotiations between the Treasury and Departments were routine or if the delay in the CSR indicated something more sinister, the PMOS said that if he was being asked about today’s Evening Standard report, all he would say was that such coverage in the run-up to any CSR was clearly routine.
Iran
Asked for an update on the release of the eight British servicemen, the PMOS said that they were still at the British Embassy in Tehran. No doubt more details about the incident would emerge once they were out of Iran and had been properly debriefed. Asked if the boat had been returned, the PMOS said that discussions were continuing about this issue.
Northern Ireland
Asked about the Northern Ireland talks at Lancaster House tomorrow, the PMOS said that we would take the opportunity to assess the current position. We believed we needed to intensify the process in the early autumn and would set out how we intended to do so.
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