Briefing from the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman on: Reasonable Force, Licensing Laws, Rawnsley Book, MI6 and the Middle East
Reasonable Force
Asked if the Home Secretary’s statement would represent a change in the Government’s position on reasonable force the PMOS said that before christmas we had promised to talk to ACPO and other relevant people about this issue. We had accepted then that there had been a degree of confusion around the issue. The written statement would report back on that process of consultation. The PMOS declined to pre-empt the Home Secretary’s statement.
Asked if there would be a change in the law the PMOS indicated that that was unlikely. Asked if the Government’s latest position was backed by ACPO, the DPP, and other relevant bodies the PMOS said his understanding was that the relevant bodies were supportive of the Government’s view and that there was now a genuine consensus on what needed to be done. Asked if the met commissioner had been consulted the pmos referred journalists to the home office for specific details of the process.
Licensing Laws
Asked for a reminder on the Government’s position on 24-hour drinking the PMOS reminded journalists that it was not 24-hour drinking, but flexible closing times. The reason for the proposed changes to licensing laws was that fixed closing times had resulted in problems. He reminded journalists that Chris Fox, president of ACPO, had said in October 2004 that 24-hour licensing was not the issue. What people wanted was the ability to stagger closing times to deal with the problems of fixed closing times at the same time as dealing with pubs that had caused problems. That was what the new legislation provided for. If there were problems in a particular area, then the local authority could now deal with those problems.
Asked if any Ministerial orders were needed to bring the legislation into force the PMOS asked journalists to check with the Department for Culture Media and Sport. Put to him that laws were surely already in place for local licensing authorities to shut down troublesome pubs the PMOS said that the new licensing act gave particular powers to local authorities to close problem premises, change licence conditions and impose stronger penalties on those who sold alcohol to children.
Asked about when exactly these powers would take effect the PMOS said he would check the precise details.
Rawnsley book
Asked if the Prime Minister or anyone in Downing Street was co-operating with Andrew Rawnsley on a book the PMOS said that we were not aware that we were co-operating with a book. Being the innocent souls that we were we had checked with Andrew Rawnsley and he was not aware that he had a book pending. That would suggest that, not only were we not co-operating with a book, but that there was no such book. It was a question for Andrew Rawnsley as to whether he was writing a book.
Asked if the Prime Minister had given an interview to Andrew Rawnsley the PMOS confirmed that he had had a conversation, much as he had with other people all the time. It was also not unknown for journalists, even some of those in this room, to travel with him and talk to him as he travelled.
Asked what the purpose of the conversation had been the PMOS said that it had been to inform Andrew Rawnsley of the Prime Minister’s views at that particular time. Asked if the Prime Minister’s views had changed the PMOS said that as circumstances changed, the Prime Minister’s views evolved.
Asked if he was disappointed that the interview had not seen the light of day the PMOS said that it had not been that kind of interview. Asked on what date Andrew Rawnsley had conducted the interview the PMOS said that it had been on the Prime Minister’s flight to Scotland.
MI6
Asked why the Government thought it necessary for MI6 to have a business advisor the PMOS said that a businessman had actually been an advisor of MI6 since 2002. That arrangement was merely being formalised. In terms of quality control, it was common for all organisations to have such figures, and it was therefore deemed to be a sensible re-arrangement of how mi6 did things.
Asked about the Butler Report’s suggestion that there were not enough people in MI6 to assess the strength of the intelligence coming in the PMOS said that, as another part of the process, MI6 were moving more staff into its intelligence reporting sections. This should strengthen the capacity for evaluating reports. It was not just a case of creating a new position, called the head of reporting. Rather, today’s appointment was part of an overall process of improving MI6, which would continue.
Middle East
Asked about reports that the Prime Minister was sending an envoy to Palestine in advance of the march conference the PMOS said that there would be continuing conversations with both the palestinians and the israelis about how we moved things forward following the Prime Minister’s trip to the region. This should come as no surprise.
Asked if Lord Levy would go to the region the PMOS declined to give a running commentary on who would be in the area at particular times. We would continue to work with the Palestinians in the run-up to the march conference.
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