Briefing from the Prime Minister's Spokesman on: Health Speech, nuclear power, energy prices and misc.
Morning press briefing from 7 January 2008
Health Speech
The Prime Minister's Spokesman (PMS) began by saying a few words on the Prime Minister's health speech. In addition to
the information given out that morning on screening, there were two further aspects of the speech that he would draw
people's attention to.
The first of these was further action being taken to overcome failure in the NHS and driving up performance, as part of
the ongoing reform agenda. During 2008, Alan Johnson would be bringing new proposals for dealing with failure in the
NHS.
As people knew, the Government was already legislating in the current Health and Social Care Bill, to give new powers to
the Care Quality Commission, to impose fines and close down wards in the case of poor performance. The Prime Minister
and the Secretary of State for Health wanted to go further, for example making it easier for strategic health
authorities to remove the boards of failing hospitals and replacing the management, to give greater freedoms to
foundation trusts to take over the management of underperforming hospitals and to give new powers to primary care trusts
to take action against underperforming or failing primary care services, including GP services.
The second aspect was taking forward some of the themes from this morning, for instance how the Government would be
taking forward what's known as the "active patient agenda." This meant giving people more choice and more support over
how they themselves can help manage their long-term conditions. Technology had made this increasingly possible and to
take a very simple example at one end of the spectrum, in some parts of the country, asthma sufferers got text messages
to tell them when pollen levels were high, which has had a big impact on asthma attacks.
At the other end of the spectrum, people with quite complex heart conditions were having technology placed in their
homes to help monitor their conditions and that is then monitored by clinicians in hospitals, who can then intervene if
something looks awry.
The Government would be bringing forward a patients prospectus during the course of this year that would set out how the
Government would extend to the 15 million patients with a chronic or long-term condition, access to a choice of active
patient or care-at-home options, which is clinically appropriate to them.
Asked whether the specific measures mentioned in the speech would only apply to England rather than Britain, the PMS
replied that health was a devolved matter, so these measures related to England.
Nuclear Power
Asked about the energy announcements on Thursday, the PMS said that it would include the decision of whether or not to
go ahead with the next generation of nuclear power stations. Asked what else would be included, the PMS said that it
would probably be best to wait for the announcement.
Asked if it would come in the form of a statement and would Cabinet be discussing the issue tomorrow, the PMS replied
that that was his anticipation. Put that this would be the decision to go ahead with nuclear power, the PMS replied that
a consultation had been undertaken; that consultation had now concluded and the Government would need to make a decision
in the light of that consultation.
Asked to comment on the Guardian article claiming that the tax-payer may have to foot the bill for decommissioning power
stations, the PMS said that we had always been clear on nuclear power, that if the Government did decide that new
nuclear power should be an option, then owners and operators of the new nuclear power stations would have to set aside
funds to cover the full costs of decommissioning.
The Government had always been clear that the full share of costs of long-term management and disposal of waste should
fall on the operators. As a general principle, of course there were costs associated with decommissioning nuclear waste
and clearly, it was right that those costs were borne by the operators and that had always been the Government's
position.
Put that one of the problems of nuclear power was the fact that companies could not see any medium-term return on
investment, the PMS replied that these were commercial decisions that would have to be taken by commercial operators. At
the moment, we were still in the realms of the hypothetical, because the Government had not yet made any announcement in
relation to nuclear power.
Asked specifically about the word "share" in relation to the cost of decommissioning, the PMS said for detailed
questions such as this, it would be best to speak to the department and wait for the announcement on Thursday. Asked if
a full share meant the full costs, the PMS again asked people to check with the department. The full share was what the
Government was saying in relation to the long-term management and disposal of waste, and the full cost was what the
Government was saying in relation to decommissioning.
Asked what the Prime Minister's view was on the Scottish Government's decision to go against any new nuclear power
stations, the PMS said that the Prime Minister's general view was that we do have to take some difficult decisions about
the future energy security of our country.
Energy Prices
Asked if the Prime Minister shared the Chancellor's concerns about energy prices, the PMS said that the Government's
view in general was that we do have a competitive market for energy prices in this country and that price changes were
commercial decisions. However, Minister's were concerned, the Prime Minister as well as the Chancellor, about the
effects of price rises and the effect they could have on businesses and vulnerable customers in particular. In the
Chancellor's role as guardian of macro-economic stability, it was only right that he should seek an assessment from
OFGEM of recent developments.
Asked if the Prime Minister was happy with how the energy market was functioning, the PMS said that these were matters
for the regulator.
Misc
Asked when people could expect the public pay review settlement, the PMS said that he was not in a position at the
moment to make any announcement on that. However the Prime Minister made his views on the matter very clear yesterday.
Asked if the Prime Minister had any message to give the new England manager, who starts his job today, the PMS replied
that he had nothing particular to say on it, but he would check with the Prime Minister and get back to people this
afternoon.
Asked whether the Prime Minister would be supporting England or Scotland when they play each other in the Rugby Six
Nations, the PMS said that the Prime Minister had always said when he'd been asked this question in the past, that if
England played Scotland, he would support Scotland.
ENDS