From 1 January 1999 all British registered fishing vessels over 10 metres in length and catching more than 2 tonnes of quota stocks have had to demonstrate an economic link with fisheries-dependent communities in the United Kingdom. This link can be demonstrated in a number of ways, for example by vessels landing at least 50 per cent. by weight of their quota catch into the UK or by employing a crew of whom at least 50 per cent. are normally resident in a UK coastal area.In 2001, 1,438 vessels caught more than 2 tonnes of quota stocks and in each case achieved a satisfactory economic link, primarily through landings into the UK. The arrangements have resulted in UK-registered but foreign-owned vessels continuing to land and incur expenditure at UK ports. Additionally some 500 tonnes of quota was made available for re-distribution to the UK fleet.A full report by the Fisheries Departments in the United Kingdom on the operation of the economic link measures in 2001 and their impact has been placed in the Library of the House.

Today we are publishing our National Languages Strategy.To date the focus for language learning has been targeted at secondary schools, when for many it is too late to excite and motivate the desire to learn another language This has resulted in a declining number of people post-16 studying languages and a shortage in the number of language teachers at both primary and secondary level.We want to increase flexibility in the curriculum at Key Stage 4 to give pupils the opportunity to pursue additional vocational routes, and therefore we have decided that Modern Foreign Languages should be an entitlement at Key Stage 4 and not a compulsory subject. We must recognise that our current system is not delivering the language learning system that is required in the 21st Century. It is our responsibility as a government to take steps to reverse this trend and rebuild the capacity to deliver language learning at all levels, starting in primary schools and continuing to adult learning.

I am pleased to announce that my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary has appointed Mr Andrew Clarke as the Appointed Person under section 290 of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002. He will act as an independent person to oversee searches conducted under new cash seizure powers where no prior judicial authority is obtained. He will also prepare and submit an annual report on the operation of the search power to the Secretary of State, a copy of which will be laid before Parliament. Mr Clarke's appointment will commence on 30 December 2002 to coincide with the introduction of the cash seizure powers under the Act.

To provide regular external scrutiny of youth offending teams (Yots) a new joint inspection programme has been developed by Her Majesty's Inspectorates of Probation, Constabulary and Prisons, the Social Services Inspectorate (England and Wales) and the education inspectorates, (OFSTED for England and ESTYN for Wales) in consultation with the Home Office and the Youth Justice Board.The programme is expected to start in April 2003. Its purpose will be to:

I have considered the Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee's (DPTAC) recommendations on the scheme which were based on the responses to the discussion paper circulated to key disability organisations and others earlier this year. I have also discussed those recommendations with my colleagues in the devolved administrations and the Northern Ireland Office who have responsibility for the Scheme.We are proposing to take forward most of the recommendations that were made. A summary of our responses on each of the recommendations has been placed in the Libraries of the House.There are a number of areas in which we have undertaken to look at amending primary legislation, in particular to ensure that the tools needed for effective enforcement are available to local authorities and the police. We will be seeking opportunities to introduce those changes as soon as possible.

The hon. Member for Chesham and Amersham (Ms Gillan) has replaced the right hon. Member for North East Hampshire (Mr Arbuthnot) as a member of the United Kingdom delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly.

I am pleased to announce that the Government has accepted the findings of the Review Board Report that the existing Profit Formula should be retained pending the outcome of the next general Review which is expected in the second half of 2003. I am arranging for copies of the Report to be placed in the Library of the House.

On 17 October (Official Report, column 571) I announced that a special appraisal of the initial training of non-Officer recruits of all three services would take place. This review was to be conducted independent of Service and commands and to report directly to Ministers. The work is nearing completion and I now plan to make findings public in January next year.Surrey Police continue their investigation into deaths at Deepcut and it would be inappropriate to comment on this area until their inquiry is complete.

Her Majesty The Queen has been graciously pleased to approve the award of the Battle Honour "Kosovo" to the Royal Air Force as listed below. Squadrons which were required to operate under constant threat of attack and had demonstrated gallantry and spirit during the allied air campaign over Kosovo during the period 24 March and 20 June 1999 have been awarded the battle honour "Kosovo" with the right to emblazon the honour on their Squadron Standards. Squadrons which provided direct support to the air campaign have been awarded the honour "Kosovo" without the right to emblazon the honour on their Standards.

The Stage 1 Report of the Quinquennial Review (QQR) of the Defence Intelligence and Security Centre (DISC) Defence Agency has today been published and copies of the report placed in the Libraries of the House.

The Key Targets proposed for the Defence Intelligence and Security Centre (DISC) Defence Agency for Financial Year 2002ߝ03 have been agreed, following consideration of the recommendations of the Quinquennial Review of DISC, the findings of which have now been announced to Parliament. These are the targets the Agency has been working to throughout this year.The role of the DISC is to train the Armed Forces and other Intelligence agencies in intelligence and security disciplines, and conduct after capture; to maintain an operational capability; and to contribute effective and timely advice to the Armed Forces on appropriate intelligence and security training matters. The Key Targets for the Agency for the 12 months from April 2002 are:

The contract for the first phase of the £1 billion Single Living Acommodation Modernisation (SLAM) programme was awarded today.The contract is being awarded to Debut services, a Birmingham based consortium led by Bovis Lend Lease and Babcock Support Services, who will work in close co-operation with Defence Estates (an Agency of MOD) and Service Client representatives to achieve the delivery of the project.The contract comprises new build and refurbishment projects across the country and will deliver primarily single room en-suite accommodation. This will meet the aspirations of our single servicemen and women for improved living conditions that meet modern standards and is the result of extensive consultation of service personnel. This is particularly relevant, as one of the main reasons for personnel leaving the Services is the current poor quality of living accommodation.The Project is planned to upgrade progressively the worst accommodation to Grade 1 physical condition over a five-year period. This will involve in the region of 16,000 bedspaces and ancillary accommodation across all ranks of single servicemen and women in the three services.The contract is being awarded on "Smart Procurement" principles and contains an innovative incentivised condition to encourage the Prime Contractor to work more efficiently.

I am today issuing a consultation paper on proposed changes to the rules for London Mayoral and Assembly elections. This consultation follows from recommendations which were made by the Greater London Returning Officer earlier this year. Copies of the consultation paper will be placed in the House Library.

The Government is looking at many ways, including e-voting, to modernise our electoral system and to increase the opportunities that people have to vote. To test the robustness of the new options and to build public confidence in them, we are continuing to promote an extensive programme of pilot innovations at local elections.

Last year's Local Government White Paper announced that each best value parish or town council would be paid a grant of £30,000 per year when legislation permitted. This sum would cover audit costs and the corporate costs of carrying out work relating to best value, such as the preparation of performance plans and the management of reviews.Provision has been made in the Local Government Bill, published last month, to enable these grants to be paid. Subject to Parliamentary approval, we expect to make the first payments in 2003–04, providing councils with a grant of £45,000, comprising £30,000 for 2003–04 and £15,000 for 2002–03.We have also agreed that, on an exceptional basis, the Audit Commission will not charge their fees for auditing best value town and parish councils' 2003–04 performance plans, and will reimburse the fees paid by these councils for auditing their 2002–03 performance plans. This should amount to a total saving of approximately £10,000 for each best value town and parish council.

Too many people experience noisy neighbours, whether late night parties, or loud television. This can have a significant impact on quality of life. It is also one of the things councils gel the most complaints about. At a time when we are encouraging the construction industry to build to greater densities, this issue is even more important.That is why I am publishing official guidance on new amendments to the Building Regulations, which will be available this week. The amendments and guidance will improve standards of sound privacy between homes, and will go further to improve the sound insulation of walls and floors within the home, as well as between rooms in hostels, hotels and residential homes.The scope of Part E of the Building Regulations will extend beyond separating walls and floors in houses and flats, to deal with reverberation in the common parts of blocks of flats, and also acoustic conditions in schools. The new requirements for Part E come into force on I July 2003.We are also addressing the need to remove barriers to trade in construction products by providing guidance on new European fire safety testing measures for those products. This will enable manufacturers to more easily comply with European Standards as well as existing British Standards.Amendments to the Approved Document for Part B of the Building Regulations come into effect on 1 March and will facilitate harmonisation between our existing national test procedures and those which have been produced in support of the Construction Products Directive (CPD).

I have today appointed, for a second term, Mr Robin Gray as a member of the Boundary Commission for England. His appointment is effective until 31 December 2006.

On the evening of Monday 16 December, the Department of Health completed its purchase of the largest remaining independent US plasma collector, Life Resources Incorporated. This will secure long-term supplies of non-UK blood plasma for the benefit of NHS patients, and ensure that the current global plasma shortage will not reduce the availability to National Health Service patients of life-saving plasma products. An independent option appraisal conducted by KPMG concluded that this purchase was the most cost-effective way of achieving these objectives.Plasma is used to manufacture products for the treatment of a wide range of conditions. Every year the NHS uses:5,000 kilos of albumin for the tens of thousands of patients treated for burns, shock and major trauma.2,000 kilos of intravenous immunoglobulin for patients with immune disorders. This includes 1,800 patients with primary immune deficiency who require an injection every 2–3 weeks throughout their lives to protect them against infection. Thousands more patients are given intravenous immunoglobulin to treat neurological and other conditions.120,000 bottles of Anti-D immunoglobulin to protect unborn children suffering from haemolytic diseases of the newborn. This affects roughly 64,000 pregnancies a year and, in a small number of cases, can cause stillbirth, severe disability or death after birth from anaemia or jaundice.400,000 bottles of Factor VIII to treat around 3,000 haemophilia patients.Around 45 per cent, of the plasma products needed by the NHS in England and Wales are manufactured by the NHS-owned Bio Products Laboratory. The remainder are purchased by the NHS on the open market from third party commercial suppliers. In 1998, the Government instructed BPL to stop using UK plasma to make these products because of concerns about the theoretical risk from variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease. Since then, BPL has purchased plasma from the United States. The US has no reported cases of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy and is the only country able to supply the quality of plasma that BPL needs in sufficient quantity. The US collects 60 per cent, of the world's plasma and supplies between 35 per cent.ߞ45 per cent, of the plasma products used in Europe alone.Up to now these supplies have been dependent on contracts with US plasma collection companies. Over the past two years most of these companies have been purchased by commercial manufacturers wishing to secure their own plasma supplies. This radically reduced the amount of US plasma that BPL could buy under contract and threatened our ability to supply sufficient non-UK plasma products to NHS patients.Without continuing secure supplies of US plasma, BPL faced shutdown by 2004 with a consequent removal of massive volumes of plasma products from the NHS market. Independent market analysis by KPMG demonstrated that commercial suppliers would not be able to provide sufficient, secure supplies of plasma products to the NHS if BPL closed. Immediate action was therefore needed to secure long-term supplies of high quality, US plasma for BPL.The Department of Health has purchased the trade and assets of Life Resources for an up front payment of £48.8 million with a further £21 million tied into the performance of the company up until the end of 2006. The Department has paid a commercial price for the business assets based on same analysis as a private sector purchaser would have undertaken.Life Resources has supplied BPL with plasma since 1999. It has extremely high quality and safety standards overseen by the US Food and Drugs Administration and the UK Medicines Control Agency. All the company's collection centres are inspected by BPL on a rolling two year programme. BPL's team also inspected every centre prior to the purchase.An effective corporate governance regime has been established for the ongoing management of Life Resources. The company will be run by its existing US management team and report to a US parent company, DCI Biologicals Incorporated. DCI Biologicals will report to a UK parent company, Plasma Resources Ltd. The Board of Plasma Resources Ltd is chaired by Richard Douglas, the Department of Health's director of finance and investment.The Government has appointed Mr Philip Gushing as non-executive chair of DCI Biologicals. Mr Gushing is highly qualified for this role. His previous positions include Chief Executive of Inchcape (1996ߝ9) and Chief Executive of Vitec Group PLC (2000ߝ1). He is also currently Chairman of Paragon Print and Packaging Limited, Spalding, Lincs, and a non executive director of Ikon Office Solutions Inc, Philadelphia, USA. He was appointed to Chair DCI because of his extensive international business experience, including a career involving American operations since 1977. He also has extensive international acquisitions experience built up over 20 years.This deal is a logical extension of the existing relationship between the NHS and an established US plasma supplier, Life Resources, and is a pragmatic solution to the problem of securing supply.

The Forty-eighth Report of the Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art for 2001ߝ02 has been published today and copies have been laid before Parliament. The Reviewing Committee provides independent advice to the Minister for the Arts on the pre-eminence of cultural objects seeking export licences, using the Waverley criteria. During the year, following recommendations from the Reviewing Committee, temporary bars were placed on the export of 34 objects, including paintings, drawings, photographs, sculptures, furniture and manuscripts. Of these, 20 items valued at £2.7 million were purchased by institutions in the UK. The report contains the Reviewing Committee's comments on policy matters relating to the operation of the export control and the protection of cultural objects, and details of each case considered during the reporting year 1 July 2001ߝ30 June 2002.

In an answer to a written Question on 11 June 2002, I stated that official papers relating to the abdication of King Edward VIII would need to be re-reviewed by Departments before release and that it was hoped that the results of the review would be known and put into effect by the end of the year. I am pleased to announce that the review has now been completed; the papers have been identified and are now being prepared for release. It is expected that they will be made available at the Public Record Office during January.