Number 10 Press Briefing - Morning From 14 January 2011
From the Prime Minister's spokesperson on: Bribery Act, Alternative Vote Bill, tanker drivers strike and fuel duty.
Bribery Act
Put that the Bribery Act was being reviewed as part of the growth review and asked if that meant the Government was preparing to soften some of its provisions, the Prime Minister’s Spokeswoman (PMS) said that the growth review was looking at all areas of government policy to see what we could do in order to remove obstacles that would help investment and economic growth.
Asked if the Prime Minister was sympathetic to complaints regarding the act, the PMS said that bribery should play no part in winning investment or business, and we stood by all the other OECD countries that had similar anti-bribery laws. Clearly we wanted to be business friendly: the aim of the growth review was to ensure that we tried to remove obstacles for investment, but at the same time ensure that we didn’t promote activities we didn’t abide by, such as bribery.
Alternative Vote Bill
Asked if the date of the referendum would be moved if the AV Bill didn’t get through in time, the PMS said that we were committed to the date of the referendum, and we were confident the bill would get through.
Tanker drivers strike
Asked if the Prime Minister had a message for tanker drivers considering strike action, the PMS said that this industrial action was a matter for the particular unions and drivers involved. More generally, we wanted any strike action that caused disruption to be avoided.
Fuel duty
Asked if there was anyway the Government could act to cut fuel duty before the Budget, the PMS said that tax decisions were a matter for the Chancellor at the time of the Budget, but the Prime Minister had made clear that he was understanding of the suffering of motorists at this time, and had asked the Treasury to look at what could be done.