My right honourable friend the Minister of State(Mr Ian McCartney) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.

Further to the announcement of my right honourable friend the former Foreign Secretary(Mr Jack Straw) to Parliament in 2004 that our embassy in Dili would close by the end of 2006, ithas now been decided that the post will close on13 October. As agreed at the time of the original decision, the responsibility for East Timor will shift to the British embassy in Jakarta from this date. An honorary consul will also be appointed. The Government of East Timor have been informed.

My honourable friend the Economic Secretary to the Treasury (Ed Balls) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.

In a Statement on 13 September, I announced that the Government would legislate to enhance the powers of the Financial Services Authority (FSA) over recognised investment exchanges and recognised clearing houses. In that Statement, I promised further detail in due course. I am now able to provide details on how we intend to take this issue forward.

The Government have decided to introduce a stand-alone Bill to enhance the FSA's powers in the next parliamentary Session. The short Bill will seek to modify Part 18 of the Financial Services and Markets Act, which deals with recognised investment exchanges and clearing houses. We intend to introduce the Bill as early as possible in the new Session, with a Second Reading expected before Christmas.

Our aim is to enable the FSA to stop recognised investment exchanges and clearing houses making changes in their regulatory provisions whose effects are likely to be disproportionate. To this end we expect that the provisions will:

cover all our recognised investment exchanges and clearing houses, including the full range of markets operated by our recognised investment exchanges;

enable the FSA to veto changes to regulatory provisions introduced by recognised exchanges and clearing houses or those applying for recognition that impose an obligation or burden; and

limit the circumstances in which the veto can be used to those where the relevant requirement is excessive, is disproportionate to the end that it seeks to achieve or does not pursue a reasonable regulatory objective.

Any exercise of the veto will be subject to appropriate processes. In particular:

where the FSA decides to call in a regulatory provision to determine whether it is excessive, it will need to specify a period during which representations can be made to it about the provision; and

if the FSA decides to veto the regulatory provisions called in, that decision can be challenged by judicial review.

These provisions are not intended to put into question existing regulatory provisions of investment exchanges and clearing houses. They are not intended to involve the FSA in micromanaging the regulatory provisions of investment exchanges or clearing houses and they are not intended to make overseas ownership of UK exchanges any easier or more difficult than it is at the moment.

The legislation is simply about providing a backstop to ensure certainty for stakeholders about the proportionality of the regulatory provisions of investment exchanges and clearing houses. We will consult shortly, including with the investment exchanges and clearing houses and their stakeholders, about the detail of what we will be proposing.

My honourable friend the Minister of State has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.

My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Defence and I wish to make the following Statement to the House about the inquests of service men and women who have died in Iraq that fall within the jurisdiction of the Oxfordshire coroner, Nicholas Gardiner.

All casualties suffered by the UK Armed Forces are a source of profound regret. UK service personnel have put their lives on the line to help to build strong, stable and democratic nations and to protect the interests of the United Kingdom, and we cannot pay high enough tribute to the job that they are doing or to the sacrifice that some of them have made. We are committed to assisting the families of UK service personnel who have died on operations overseas when their loved ones are returned to the UK.

We made a Statement to the House on 5 June with information about the conduct of inquests by the Oxfordshire coroner and how we intended to enable him to conduct expeditious inquests into the deaths of service men and women who have died on operations overseas.

Today we are announcing progress that has been made since the Written Ministerial Statement in June.

Background

Coroners are independent judicial officers appointed and paid for by the relevant local authority. Their officers and staff are employed by the local authority and/or the police.

Each death of a service man or woman killed in an operation overseas whose body is repatriated to England and Wales is subject to an inquest. The inquest—both the investigation into the death and the holding of the public hearing into the death—is conducted by the coroner with jurisdiction, which derives from where the body lies. In the case of deaths of service men and women whose bodies are flown into Brize Norton military airbase, the Oxfordshire coroner has jurisdiction.

In the 12 months preceding the June Written Ministerial Statement, in addition to the non-Armed Forces inquests that the coroner has in his jurisdiction, Mr Gardiner, his deputy coroners and the Powys coroner had conducted 30 inquests into the deaths of servicemen who died in Iraq.

At the time of the June Ministerial Statement, there remained 59 inquests to be concluded intothe deaths of service personnel killed in Iraq and11 inquests of civilians whose bodies were flown into Brize Norton.

Since the June Written Ministerial Statement, a further nine inquests have been held into the deaths of servicemen who have died in Iraq. The inquest into the death of ITN journalist Terry Lloyd is currently being heard.

When I made the Statement in June, we had only asked the coroner to provide details of inquests into those deaths in his jurisdiction relating to Iraq. Since then, the coroner has provided us with details of outstanding inquests into six deaths from previous conflicts or other military exercises abroad and three further civilian casualties. The earliest of these occurred in 1998. These are all included in the present Statement. Including these deaths, there remain 59 inquests to be concluded into the deaths of service personnel and 11 inquests into the deaths of civilians.

We have not included in the Statement inquests into a further seven deaths in Iraq and 33 deaths in Afghanistan which occurred after the June Ministerial Statement and which were repatriated into Brize Norton, as the further support for the coroner outlined below is intended to clear only the backlog of cases that he had in June. DCA and MoD officials continue to liaise with one another, the Oxfordshire coroner and his assistant deputies on the progress of all these cases and on how to handle these recent deaths.

Further support for the coroner to conduct inquests on deceased Armed Forces personnel

The Oxfordshire coroner has appointed the following as additional assistant deputy coroners to assist with conducting the inquests detailed above:

Sir Richard Curtis—High Court judge between 1992 and 2005, was appointed on 8 August.

Ms Selena Lynch—barrister at law, former full-time coroner for Inner South London and currently deputy coroner for South London, was appointed on 5 June.

Mr Andrew Walker—barrister at law, deputy coroner for both North London and East London and assistant deputy coroner for both Inner London North and Inner London South, was appointed on 5 June.

To provide support for the coroner and his assistant deputy coroners, the following resources have been made available:

Two additional coroner's officers have been appointed by Thames Valley Police to support the existing complement of six officers in the Oxfordshire coroner's office. They are supporting the coroners in various ways, including contacting witnesses, listing inquests and providing support at inquests.

Additional member of support staff—an additional administrative assistant has been appointed to the existing two administrative/support staff in the Oxfordshire coroner's office who provide administrative support for the investigations and inquests.

Recording equipment—to enable two further courts to operate simultaneously.

Progress with the remaining inquests

Since the June Ministerial Statement, all inquests of deaths that occurred before February 2006 have been allocated. Nine inquests have been held, one inquest is currently being held and a further 10 have been listed for hearing. Twenty-two inquests are in the process of being listed, subject to the availability of witnesses or family of the deceased.

In the June Written Ministerial Statement, we said that the coroner expected to be able to conclude by the end of the year those inquests of service men and women where the Ministry of Defence had completed its inquiries and case papers had been prepared. He also expected to be able to conclude by the end of the year those inquests of civilians killed in Iraq where he had been provided with the necessary reports and other information. At that time, we knew of 30 cases in the former category and three cases in the latter category. The coroner has now informed me that, due to the complexity of many of these cases, it is unlikely that all these inquests will have been completed by the end of the year. However, it is intended that all these inquests will either have been held or have a date fixed for the hearing by the end of the year.

We shall continue to keep the House informed on a quarterly basis about progress through the remaining inquests. Below is a table that outlines the status of all cases and the date of death of each case.

Liaison with the next of kin

It is of the greatest importance that the next of kin have full information about the progress on the inquest of their deceased next of kin. The extra resources provided will assist the service provided to families by the Oxfordshire coroner, in addition to the normal liaison between the Ministry of Defence and the families concerned.

My right honourable friend the Minister of State for the Armed Forces (Adam Ingram) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.

On 10 May this year, I announced the structure of the new peacetime garrison in Northern Ireland reflecting the Government's global defence commitments. I said then that the future of the site at Laurel Hill House, Coleraine, would be subject to a review of adventurous training provision. That review is now complete and has concluded that the needs of the new smaller garrison can satisfactorily be met from other retained sites and that there is no requirement to retain Laurel Hill House. We therefore plan to close the Laurel Hill House site by August 2007.

Laurel Hill House has provided vital facilities for military personnel and their families during Operation Banner. The staff, past and present, have provided an excellent service for their visitors. But as the structure of the garrison in Northern Ireland changes and the number of military personnel and their families reduces, there is no requirement to retain the facility. The Army Careers Information Office (ACIO) that is currently located within the Laurel Hill House complex will be relocated to the Territorial Army centre in Artillery Road, Coleraine; this will improve its visibility and accessibility to potential recruits.

There are 22 civil servants currently working at the Laurel Hill House site, including one civil servant at the ACIO. We continue to consult the trades unions in respect of the future requirement of civilian staff in support to the military in Northern Ireland. We will, of course, seek to avoid the need for compulsory redundancy as far as possible through transfer and voluntary early release. The department is fully committed to supporting all civilian staff at every stage of this period of change.

My right honourable friend the Minister of State for Industry and the Regions (Margaret Hodge) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.

I have decided to appoint the new board members listed at Annexe A and to reappoint the board members listed at Annexe B. The new appointments will all be for a period of three years; the reappointments will also be for a period of three years, with the exception of Rob Anderson of the South East England Development Agency (SEEDA), who will be reappointed for a further two years.

The new appointments, with the exception of Fiona Pollard (SEEDA), and the reappointments will begin on 14 December 2006 and will expire on 13 December 2009. Fiona Pollard took up appointment on 1 September 2006, in order to fill an existing board member vacancy, and her appointment will expire on 13 December 2009.

I have placed further details of both the new appointments and reappointments in the Libraries of both Houses. All of them were made in accordance with the code of practice of the Commissioner for Public Appointments.