Briefing from the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman on: Lord Butler, David Blunkett, Climate Change and Other Business.
Lord Butler
Asked what the Prime Minister thought of Lord Butler’s comments that the Prime Minister had a very bad style of Government that was only interested in central control of headlines and that had produced a lot of extremely bad Bills the PMOS said that he did not do book reviews or magazine reviews or assist in magazine sales. He would leave other people to do that. He would point out however that following the Sir Peter Gershwin Review in 2004 Spending Review there was a very clear efficiency programme being carried out within the Civil Service. Civil Service numbers were actually lower than they were 10 years ago. The Prime Minister firmly stood by decisions such as making the Bank of England independent. Equally he stood by the movement of more staff within the civil service to the frontline. In terms of the Prime Minister’s style of government what the Prime Minister and Government should be judged on was the results it had achieved across a wide range of subjects. Asked what had happened in the Prime Minister’s Office since the Butler Report’s complaint about the so called "sofa" style of Government and insufficient note taking the PMOS said that in terms of the way in which meetings were recorded Lord Butler’s recommendations had been taken on board.
Asked further about the style of Government and in response to the suggestion that the nature of Cabinet increasingly was to report back and to get the background to decisions and whether decisions were actually taken by Cabinet the PMOS said that it depended on the issue. In terms of important issues where there was a clear debate they were discussed and a consensus was reached. But it depended on the nature of the subject. You could not in Government take every decision in Cabinet. That just was not realistic. It was demeaning to the policy process to suggest that the discussion had to take place at the point of decision. That demeaned the importance of discussions early on in the process. You saw that week in week out in Cabinet on a whole series of subjects. We could not have had the 5-year plans programme without having had really good discussions at Cabinet about relative priorities and how Government moved things forward. Therefore what you in fact had was a much deeper process of discussion, rather than just facing people with decisions at the last minute and as such that lead to better Government.
David Blunkett
Asked if there was any discussion at Cabinet about members of Cabinet giving performance reports on fellow ministers or an urging from the Prime Minister for Ministers to keep their thoughts to themselves the PMOS said that he had left just before the end but up till that point there had been no mention of that, but he would check on the detail of the remainder of the meeting and get back. Asked if the Prime Minister had expressed any views following Prime Minister’s Questions when he said he had had enough of it the PMOS said that he had not heard him do so, but again he would get back.
Asked if the Budd report would be the definitive word on this issue, if it would be the end of the matter as far as we were concerned, the PMOS said that the Budd Report would report and we would then see what it said. In terms of timing it would take as long as it took. People had expressed a desire to give evidence and that would now have to be taken into account. Asked if it had to be published when Parliament was sitting the PMOS said that it would depend on the view of the Permanent Secretary at the Home Office who had asked for the review. Ultimately though it would depend on when it was ready.
Climate Change
Asked what efforts the Prime Minister was making to get President Bush’s support on Britain’s G8 priority to tackle climate change the PMOS said that in terms of President Bush and climate change as we had said when we returned from the White House in November we had discussed the issue. The Prime Minister reported as such to the House of Commons on the 17 November. We had also said we were seeking a consensus on the way forward and that consensus would be taken further forward in February whenever as announced we would be holding a scientific conference, to be held in Exeter, of international experts on this subject. People should recognise that the US position was not just a position singular to President Bush. The Senate, after all, had voted 96-0 in rejection of Kyoto and that position had been there since President Clinton’s tenure. The key was also to recognise, as the Prime Minister had said in Johannesburg, that while we believed Kyoto to be very important, and we did not in any way resile from Kyoto, we also had to recognise that Kyoto by itself was not enough to tackle the issue. What we had to do was push forward on the technological front to try and make compatible more environmentally friendly technology whilst at the same time not harming economic growth in the world. If you harmed economic growth then you did not have the resources to keep pushing forward world development. At the same time you had to tackle the real problems of climate change. It was how you reconciled those problems and how you achieved a consensus that was why we were making it a G8 priority. In reality the issues of climate change and Africa were related and therefore that was why they would form the backbone of our G8 presidency approach.
Asked if there were on going efforts between the Prime Minister and President Bush to work towards that aim the PMOS said that in some ways he was surprised that the question was asked because we had said consistently that we were talking to the Americans about this. Therefore what we had said after the November visit to the White House to that extent was nothing new. We had always been involved in dialogue, not only with the Americans, but also with the our European partners and other countries around the world - both developed countries such as Japan and developing countries such as China, India and so on. Asked how important it was to get the Americans on board, the PMOS said that it was important that we got the world as a whole on board and that we got a consensus, a consensus about science, a consensus about the possibility for change and a consensus about the nature of the problem. That was what we were trying to do with the Exeter conference and our G8 Presidency. Asked if the US was moving towards the British position the PMOS said that our G8 Presidency had not yet begun and the point about the Exeter conference was to try and work towards that consensus. We could not speak for the Americans about what there view was but the important thing was that we tried to reach a genuine consensus. That would not happen instantaneously but the more we discussed it and the more we pushed forward the technology the more chance there was of reaching that consensus.
Other Business
Asked for further details about the NHS continuing care statement the PMOS said that it was issuing national standards for continuing care throughout the country to address what was known as the "postcode lottery". People should talk to the Department of Health for further details.
Asked if there was any timing about the restructuring of Scottish regiments the PMOS said that he did not have any details but that it would not be this week.
Asked if the Prime Minister and Austrian Federal Chancellor discussed Turkey’s entry into the European Union the PMOS said that they discussed a whole range of EU issues and as well as looking ahead to the EU summit next week.
Asked about the Shipman inquiry response the PMOS said that John Reid had welcomed the fifth report into the Shipman Inquiry and would consider the recommendations and respond in due course. In terms of the fourth report we accepted the great majority of the recommendations and for the remainder we would take forward the proposals by alternative action. For further detail people should contact the Department of Health.
Asked if the Prime Minister supported the proposals outlined this morning for Civil Service Pensions Reform and plans for other public servant’s pensions the PMOS said that for the detail people should speak to the Cabinet Office but in terms of the particular paper it was important to remember that it was a consultation document and that consultation would run until March. As Ruth Kelly had said this morning on the radio what we were interested in was listening but what we also wanted was a system that was fairer to the Civil Service as a whole.
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