:South Cambridgeshire District Council experienced exceptional flooding and consequential damage in the district on the weekend of 20–21 October 2001. Given these circumstances I am satisfied that financial assistance under the Bellwin scheme is justified. A scheme will therefore be established under section 155 of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989. Grant will be paid to the authority to cover 85 per cent of the eligible costs above a threshold, which it has incurred in dealing with the flooding.

Following a consultation exercise. I have decided to agree to the request from Plymouth City Council to make regulations which would enable (i) London licensed private hire operators to sub-contract bookings to Plymouth private hire operators; (ii) a Plymouth licensed private hire operator who accepts in Plymouth a hiring which starts in London, to use a Plymouth licensed private hire vehicle for that hiring; and (iii) a Plymouth licensed private hire operator who accepts in Plymouth a hiring which starts in London, to use a Plymouth licensed private hire driver for that hiring.This decision will be effected by means of transitional regulations made under section 37 of the Private Hire Vehicles (London) Act 1998.A decision note, containing a summary of responses and setting out my decision, has been placed in the Library.

I have today placed copies of the independent review of BBC News 24 by Richard Lambert in the Libraries of both Houses, together with a letter to Gavyn Davies setting out my response.In response to the review, I have attached two further conditions to the approvals of BBC News 24. These require the Governors to publish their response to the Lambert report by the end of March 2003, and to promulgate revised commitments for the service, taking account of Richard Lambert's recommendations, by the end of May 2003.A website version of the review can be found on the DCMS website at www.culture.gov.uk www.culture.gov.uk

On 8 July 2002, the Government published a consultation paper asking for views on options for reforming the formula grant distribution system for local authorities. Responses for this paper were invited from local government and other interested parties by 30 September.An analysis of responses received to the consultation has been published today. Copies have been placed in the Vote Office and the Library of the House. The Government's response to the consultation will be set out later today in our proposals for the 2003–04 local government finance settlement.

Progress towards the entry to service of Typhoon has been reviewed closely since the start, in April 2002, of test flying with the instrumented production aircraft. The process of gathering flight safety and performance data, which is necessary to accept aircraft into service, is taking industry longer than the agreed schedule. The large volume of work to resolve outstanding and arising design issues, although individually minor, has also progressed more slowly than expected. As a result, we have concluded with our international partners and with industry that the evidence required to permit contractual acceptance of the aircraft by the four partner nations will not be complete before the end of March 2003. Allowing for the joint, four-nation acceptance process, aircraft should then be ready for hand-over to the Royal Air Force by the end of June 2003. In any event, following the loss of a development aircraft in Spain on 21 November, it is essential that there is a time allowance for the realignment of test flying tasks. Further delay cannot be ruled out until the causes and implications of the crash are fully understood. This second delay, since the contract was placed with industry, to Typhoon's entry to service is extremely disappointing, but safety remains paramount, and we will only accept aircraft that meet the agreed specification. Every effort will be made to accelerate the entry to service and work-up process to prevent or minimise any delay to the operational employment of Typhoon, scheduled for the second half of the decade. It is this latter date, of course, when the RAF is able to use the aircraft on operations, that is so critical.

On 1 July 2001 the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency was successfully divided into QinetiQ plc, a wholly Government-owned company, and the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, which remains part of the Ministry of Defence.On 6 March 2002,

Subject to Parliamentary approval of the necessary Supplementary Estimate, the Home Office's Departmental Expenditure Limits (DEL) for 2002–03 will change as follows:

:I have today placed in the Library a copy of the Home Secretary's proposals for allocation of police grant for England in 2003–2004. The Home Secretary and I intend to implement the proposals subject to consideration of any representations we receive about them, and to the approval of the House.Funding the police service properly is a top priority for this Government. The settlement I am announcing today continues that commitment. The total provision for policing, to be supported by grant in 2003–04 is £9,243 million. This is a cash rise of £543 million or 6.2 per cent, over the provision for 2002–03. This includes principal formula police grant, direct Home Office spending, the standard spending on which revenue support grant is based.We launched the first National Policing Plan last month. It outlined four policing priorities: tackling antisocial behaviour and disorder; reducing volume, street, drug-related and violent and gun crime; combating serious and organised crime; and, increasing the number of offences brought to justice. This settlement underpins delivery of those priorities and reinforces our commitment to police reform. There is funding to enable English forces to increase police strength and contribute towards the target of 132,500 police officers in 2004. This will be made available through continuation of the highly successful Crime Fighting Fund which we plan to fund for another three years. Better use will be made of those officers. They will benefit from a pay system that rewards the most experienced officers who can demonstrate a high level of professional competence and those in the most difficult and demanding posts. They will be supported by Community Support Officers (CSOs) and civilian custody staff and investigators, reducing bureaucracy and freeing police officers for operational duties. As part of this, resources will be available to recruit further CSOs across the next three years, allowing English forces to employ their share of the 4,000 we believe should be in place by 2005. Better use of technology will help police officers still further. We are investing in IT with further funding for authorities taking up the Airwave radio communication service and for the Metropolitan Police Authority's' Command Control and Communications Information (C3i) System. Funds will be available for roll-out of the custody and case preparation system which will enable data on those in custody to be collated by the police and used across the criminal justice system.We are taking the opportunity to outline the wider provision for support for the police service in England. This includes police grant and revenue support grant, a range of specific grants to be paid directly to police authorities for particular initiatives, capital grants and borrowing approvals, and operational and central spending in support of policing provided directly by the Home Office.