I wish to announce changes in the way in which the Home Office handles certain types of project licence applications made under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986.The types of application in question are publicly recorded as being automatically referred to the Animal Procedures Committee (APC) for advice, before decisions are taken by or on behalf of the Secretary of State. For some types, this is in accordance with pledges given when the 1986 Act was passing through Parliament, while others are referred through arrangements agreed subsequently. Details are set out in various APC annual reports laid before both Houses.The APC has recently been considering which applications should be referred to it in future, and the chairman has put a number of recommendations to me.The APC recommends that three types of application, on which it is currently committed to give advice, no longer need to be among those listed as routinely referred to it. First, it no longer sees value in considering applications to use terminally anaesthetised rats for microsurgery training, since such cases are few and usually raise no particularly difficult or contentious issues. Secondly, it now sees no point in including in the automatic referral category applications to test tobacco products, since the established policy and practice has long been not to license such testing. (Tobacco is used in licensed animal studies investigating diseases, but its use in such cases is not itself regarded as a reason for referral.) Thirdly, the requirement to refer applications to test finished cosmetic products and ingredients has been similarly overtaken, in that the industry has agreed to make no further applications for this purpose, as it is Home Office policy not to license it.I have accepted the APC's recommendations as regards all these types of applications. They will with immediate effect no longer be regarded as ones to be automatically referred or to be recorded in that category. This change will make no significant or practical difference, other than saving processing time in the microsurgery training cases and avoiding unproductive use of Home Office and APC resources.The APC has also recommended that it should continue its current practice of advising on all the other applications that are by agreement referred to it as a matter of course. These are applications to use wild caught non-human primates, and to use any non-human primates in scientific procedures of substantial severity. It also wishes to keep the requirement that it should offer advice on applications of any kind raising novel or controversial issues, or giving rise to serious concerns.

On 27 October 2003 my right h on. Friend the Home Secretary and my right hon. and learned Friend The Lord Chancellor announced new legislative proposals for asylum reform. David Lammy and I wrote to a number of stakeholders outlining these proposals and inviting comments. Today we are publishing a summary report on the responses we received. Copies of this will be sent to those who responded to the letter as well as being placed in the Libraries of both Houses of Parliament and on the IND website. We will also be placing copies of the race equality impact assessments of the provisions contained in the Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants, etc) Bill in the Libraries of both Houses of Parliament.

I have today laid before both Houses a Departmental Minute on a £400,000 contingent liability which the Department for International Department has entered into. Under this arrangement DFID will extend its guarantee on a commercial loan to the Day Chocolate Company, a fair trade company partly owned by the Kuapa Kokoo cocoa co-operative. This marketing channel provides co-operative members with direct benefits in the form of fair prices and community level projects. This is the first use of the power to provide financial assistance by way of a guarantee under the International Development Act 2002.

The Department for International Development has published a new policy paper on Agriculture, "Agriculture and poverty reduction: unlocking the potential".The paper sets out DFID's commitment to agriculture as a fundamental part in the Government's approach to achieving the millennium development goals. The paper provides details of DFID's current activities in agriculture through both its central and country programmes, and outlines DFID's approach to finding new ways of reversing agriculture's relative decline and stagnation in many of the world's poorest countries.A copy of this policy paper has been placed in the House of Commons Library, and comments are welcome. The contact point is agriculture@dfid.gov.uk.

The 49th Report of the Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art for 2002–03 has been laid before Parliament. The Reviewing Committee provides independent advice to the Minister of State for the Arts on whether cultural objects that are the subject of applications for export licences are of outstanding national importance, using the Waverley criteria. During the year, following recommendations from the Reviewing Committee, temporary bars were placed on the export of 23 items, including paintings, drawings, sculptures, armour and jewellery. Of these, 11 items, valued at 4.2 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 2002 to 30 June 2003.The Review will also be available on the DCMS website http://www.culture.gov.uk

Land Registry's revised framework document is published today. Copies have been placed in the Libraries of both Houses.Land Registry became an executive agency in July 1990 and a trading fund since 1993. During that period it has met improving financial, customer service and development targets whilst making land registration services progressively more efficient and cheaper.The framework document sets out the framework within which Land Registry operates. In particular, it describes the flexibilities it has in terms of financial and human resource management. It also sets out it responsibilities to its customers and its accountability to the Secretary of State and Lord Chancellor and to Parliament. The Document has been produced following a major review of Land Registry's status and business operations in 2000. The report of that review was published in 2001.On 13 October, the Land Registration Act 2002 was implemented signalling the most significant legislative reform for Land Registry since 1925. The changes to the operation of the Registry that have been brought about by the Act are reflected in the new document.

I have today accepted the recommendation from the Export Credits Guarantee Department (ECGD) that they should provide cover for a USD$150 million line of credit to finance UK contractors involved in the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline project.ECGD's decision was made after a rigorous assessment of the risks associated with the project and a thorough review of the environmental, social and human rights impacts arising from the project.A number of conditions remain to be fulfilled before ECGD's cover is made available, including final approval of the environmental and social action plan, and the general oil spill response plan. The project company has indicated that it will make copies of these plans publicly available in due course.ECGD has placed a note of the decision on its website and copies are available in the Library of the House.

I have today published the Government's response to the Fourth Report of the Public Administration Select Committee, "Government by Appointment: Opening Up the Patronage State."I am grateful for the Committee's comprehensive and helpful report. We have considered the report in detail and undertaken in-depth consultation. The Government accept the majority of the Committee's recommendations and is already implementing some of them.The key features of the Government's response are:

I have today published the new Delivering Diversity in Public Appointments 2003. This explains what each central Government department is doing to increase diversity on the boards of their public bodies.The report includes action plans for each department as well as details of progress to date. It also includes targets to increase the proportion of appointments held by women, people from ethnic minority backgrounds and disabled people to be achieved by 2006.The Government has two fundamental commitments that apply to public appointments. The first is that selection should be made on merit, using fair and open procedures that ensure the best available candidate is appointed to each post.The second is a commitment to improving diversity in public appointments and recognition that the boards of public bodies will be most effective if they benefit from access to a wide range of skills, experience and backgrounds among their members. In particular, the Government is committed to the equal representation of women and men in public appointments; pro rata representation of members of ethnic minority groups and increased participation of disabled people.The Government is keen to ensure that these commitments are met and that those serving on public bodies are representative of society as a whole. Progress has been made. But there is still much more to be done. I commend this new report, and the plans in departments to ensure that the targets they have set are met.The report can be found on the Internet at www.publicappointments.gov.uk of the report have also been placed in the Libraries of the House.

The Government are introducing new controls to license the activities of those who trade in military goods between overseas countries (also known as trafficking and brokering); transfer technology for military goods by electronic means (e-mail, fax, etc.); transfer technology, by any means, for use in connection with WMD; and provide technical assistance for use in connection with WMD.These controls are contained in the Export of Goods, Transfer of Technology and Provision of Technical Assistance (Control) Order 2003 (SI 2003/2764) and the Trade in Goods (Control) Order 2003 (SI 2003.2765) and will come into force on 1 May 2004. Section 9(3) of the Export Control Act 2002 requires the Secretary of State to give guidance about the general principles to be followed when exercising licensing powers.The then Minister for Europe, my right hon. Friend, the Member for Neath (Mr. Hain), made a statement to Parliament on 26 October 2000,

The UN panel on the Illegal Exploitation of the Natural Resources of the Democratic Republic of Congo has now completed its work. It addressed one of the central and most contentious issues of the conflict in the DRC: the link between the causes of the conflict and the exploitation of natural resources. The panel's final report contains a number of important recommendations about how both the Congolese people and the international community should better manage the exploitation of resources to benefit the people of the DRC. Without losing sight of what has gone on before and the need for justice in appropriate cases, we need to build on many of its positive recommendations.

I am pleased to announce the publication of the 2003 autumn performance report of the Department for Work and Pensions (Cm 6044). The report is intended to supplement the Department's annual report published in May (Cm 5424).The report provides the latest account of how the Department is performing against its public service agreement targets. A copy has been placed in the Library. Further copies are available to hon. Members in the Vote Office.

NEVIS Water has today been announced as the preferred bidder for the third and final contract for Project Aquatrine, which will provide water and wastewater services to Ministry of Defence (MOD) sites within Scotland.Project Aquatrine is one of the Government's leading and most significant Public Private Partnership (PPP) projects and will transfer the responsibility for the operation and maintenance of the Department's water and waste water assets and infrastructure throughout Great Britain to private sector providers. This project will enable the transfer of environmental risk to those in the private sector who are best placed to manage it. This 25-year contract will enable the MOD to exit a non-core activity and concentrate its efforts on delivering military capability.This contract is expected to go live in November 2004 following a pre-commencement period.This announcement follows the appointment of BREY Utilities for Package A in April 2003, which went live on 1 December 2003 and the appointment of C2C, on 12 November 2003, as Preferred Bidder for Package C.

We intend to enter into a number of public-private partnerships, which will bring greater flexibility to our armed forces and increase the involvement of our defence industrial base. Under the Private Finance Initiative deal, the Amey Lex Consortium has been chosen as the preferred bidder to provide the C Vehicle Capability for the services, both in peacetime and for forces on operations.The contract will cover all heavy plant equipment as well as logistic support and construction machines required by the armed forces. Many of these components are used in digging, dozing, lifting and transporting. The great utility of this equipment could be seen on recent operations, building and maintaining the infrastructure for our troops. The contract is valued at over £500 million for the 15-year period.Among the benefits are a more rapid fleet turnover, which will allow changes in technology and fleet management processes to be introduced more quickly and will reduce the maintenance and supply burden thereby benefiting front-line troops. The best elements of commercial practise will be used to support maintenance and repair, providing the opportunity to reduce spares holdings and to adopt a strategic pooling approach to the provision of the capability.This is an excellent opportunity for defence suppliers to play a major part in ensuring our military capability is truly flexible in order to meet our future commitments.