The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister yesterday laid before Parliament an amendment to The Local Authority (Capital Finance) Regulations 1997 to allow local authorities to use up to 100 per cent, of the capital receipt they receive from the disposal of certain housing assets, excluding right to buy sales and large and small scale voluntary transfers, for the provision of affordable housing.Copies of the regulation have been placed in both House Libraries.

HMG hosted a successful meeting on strengthening export controls on small arms and light weapons at Lancaster House on 14 and 15 January. Over fifty nations and representatives of international organisations and NGOs attended. The Secretary of State for International Development and I addressed the delegates.The meeting was an initiative of the Government's Global Conflict Prevention Pool. The Government's objective was to build on and develop consensus between small arms exporting nations, whether producers or stock-holders, on the need for effective export controls and controls on arms brokers. These were sensitive issues that the Government considered would benefit from further work following the UN Conference on the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All its Aspects in 2001.Recognising the central role for the UN, the meeting discussed ways of taking forward work on an international agreement to control the activities of arms brokers. There was also general agreement on the need for effective export controls on small arms.The UK will report the outcome of the meeting to the United Nations biennial review meeting in July 2003 and follow up on the common ground established at Lancaster House.The meeting demonstrates the strength of the international consensus to implement more effective controls on small arms exports and brokers. All who attended saw the meeting as a useful initiative to take forward key elements in the international effort to control the spread of small arms, a major factor in instability and conflict, particularly in Africa and in human rights abuses and crime worldwide.

The DNA Expansion Programme is a major Government initiative that has been developed to enable the police to make maximum benefit of DNA in tackling crime. Home Office funding has been made available to enable the police to take DNA samples from all people cautioned or charged with a recordable offence and from as many crime scenes as possible. The database has already played a leading role in solving a large number of crimes.A number of prisoners and mentally disordered offenders do not have DNA on the database as they were convicted before the DNA expansion programme enabled every offender to be DNA sampled. An exercise is now underway to identify those offenders without DNA on the database and to ensure that a sample is taken before they are released from prison or hospital. This Prisoner DNA Sampling Programme is being run under the auspices of the existing DNA Expansion Programme.A dedicated programme management team has been recruited and is developing plans to ensure that the majority of those without DNA profiles on the database do provide them by Summer 2003. Centrally managed but regionally based teams of police officers working in close co-operation with prison and mental health establishments will ensure a speedy completion of the exercise with minimal impact on the establishments involved.The exercise will underpin the Home Office aims of reducing crime, increasing the efficiency of crime investigation and increasing successful prosecutions. If known offenders can be linked to their offences more often and more quickly then we will be able to detect and deter more crime in the future—and also improve victim reassurance and so contribute to reduction of the fear of crime.The Prisoner DNA Sampling Programme and the broader DNA Expansion Programme are clear examples of the use of science and technology to reduce crime and improve the effectiveness of the police. In the National Policing Plan, published recently, we state our commitment to ensure that the DNA database covers all known active offenders by 2004.

Today sees the launch of the first ever science and technology strategy for the police.

I would like to update the House on the implementation of the Royal Mail financing package.In her statement of 13 June 2002,

I am today publishing a new edition of the Green Book, "Appraisal and Evaluation in Central Government", guidance which the Treasury has for many years provided to other public sector bodies. Copies are being placed in the Vote Office and the Libraries of both Houses.The new edition incorporates revised guidance to encourage a more thorough, long-term and analytically robust approach to appraisal and evaluation. It has been prepared following extensive consultation, including a public consultation exercise that ended last October.Among the main changes are the following. First, there is a stronger emphasis on the identification, management and realisation of the benefits of proposals. Secondly, the new edition 'unbundles' the discount rate, introducing a rate of 3.5 per cent. in real terms, based on social time preference, while taking account of the other factors which were in practice often implicitly bundled up in the old 6 per cent. real figure. In particular, the new Green Book includes, for the first time, an explicit adjustment procedure to redress the systematic optimism ("optimism bias") that historically has afflicted the appraisal process. Finally, there is greater emphasis on assessing the differential impacts of proposals on the various groups in our society, where these are likely to be significant.

I said yesterday that I would report further to the House, when I was able to do so, about the operation in Greater Manchester on 14 January in which a police officer, DC Stephen Oake, died.The basic facts about this incident have now been confirmed by Greater Manchester Police. In the late afternoon of Tuesday 14 January, two immigration officers, with the support of Greater Manchester Police, entered premises in Crumpsall Lane, Manchester, for the purpose of detaining, pending deportation, an individual whom I had certified earlier in the day under the provisions of Part IV of the Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001. In addition, the officers of Greater Manchester Police had obtained a warrant to search the premises.Three men present at the premises were detained. Nine Tactical Aid Unit officers, who had entered the premises, assisted in securing these men and in making the scene safe. All these officers were wearing full protective equipment, including body armour, and remained in the premises. Fourteen Special Branch officers were there to undertake aspects of the operation involving investigation and intelligence gathering. These officers were not wearing body armour.The exact detail of what took place is still under investigation and will be the subject of an inquiry. But, as is already known, it is clear that a violent incident occurred during which DC Oake was fatally stabbed, three other officers were stabbed and a fourth officer sustained a broken ankle. One of these officers remains in hospital, suffering from stab wounds to the abdomen. His condition is stable and he is likely to leave hospital next week. The other three officers have now been released from hospital.Following the struggle, the situation was brought under control by the police and all three men were arrested under Section 41 of the Terrorism Act 2000. Subsequently, one man was released from these provisions and immediately detained by the Immigration Service. He is currently detained in prison under Part IV of the Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act. The second man has also been released from the provisions of the Terrorism Act and remains in the custody of Greater Manchester Police, pending investigation into the death of DC Oake and injuries to the other officers. The third man remains detained under the Terrorism Act and is now in the custody of the Metropolitan Police.Armed Response Vehicle resources were available throughout the operation for immediate deployment as required, but firearms officers were not deployed in specific support of this operation. The inquiry will obviously examine this. All the Tactical Aid Unit officers who entered the building were wearing full protective equipment, including body armour.The Chief Constable of Greater Manchester, Michael Todd, has, with my agreement, established an inquiry which will be led by a senior police officer from outside the Greater Manchester Police Force. The inquiry will be held with the support of the Immigration Service. The senior investigator from Greater Manchester Police will be a Detective Superintendent and, from the Immigration Service, an Assistant Director.The inquiry will concentrate on all aspects of planning, briefings, communications and implementation of the operation. The key objective will be to learn the lessons from this tragic incident, as I made clear in my oral statement to the House yesterday. The preliminary findings will be available within four weeks.