Press release

Number 10 Press Briefing - Afternoon From 3 February 2011

From the Prime Minister's spokesperson on: Big Society, Pope's Visit, Egypt, IPSA.

This was published under the 2010 to 2015 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government

Big Society

Asked about Liverpool City Council officially withdrawing from the Big Society project, the Prime Minister’s Spokesman (PMS) told the assembled press that it was something we were looking into.

We were looking into what the particular issues were and whether there were barriers and problems in that particular project. The PMS added that we were trying to do something new and something slightly different and the point of these pilots was to see what would work.

Pope’s Visit

Asked if the PM thought it was appropriate for £1.8million of The Department for International Development’s money to be spent on the Pope’s visit, the PMS said, as he understood it, this was not part of DfID’s budget which contributed towards its aid target of 0.7 per cent of GDP, it was another part of their budget.

Egypt

Asked what the international community, including the UK, meant when they talked about the change process, the PMS said that we would like to see conversations happening with a broad range of people, including opposition politicians.

IPSA

Asked whether IPSA disputing the £6million figure changed the Government’s response, the PMS said he thought they had made a statement about what they expected the figure to be in the future.

The PMS added that the costs this year were expected to be £6million. IPSA had said they intended to reduce that in future years and obviously that was very welcome.

Published 3 February 2011