Items on the agenda are as follows:

Presidency Work Programme—The Austrian Presidency will give a presentation on its major priorities for the next six months;

Stability and Growth Pact—ECOFIN will adopt Council Opinions on the Stability and Programme of Finland and the Convergence Programmes of Denmark, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia; and a Council Decision under Article 104(6) and Recommendation under Article 104(7) of the EC Treaty with regard to the UK;

Preparation of the European Council—Council will discuss the forthcoming Commission Annual Progress Report in the run up to the Spring European Council. Council will also adopt conclusions on the Economic Policy Committee Report regarding the quality of EU public finances;

Taxation: VAT Reduced rates—ECOFIN will seek political agreement on the VAT Reduced Rates dossier;

Energy Issues—ECOFIN will discuss energy issues following on from its December meeting.

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department, my hon. Friend the Member for Leigh (Andy Burnham), and I are today meeting the banking industry to discuss the application of the Government's identity fraud strategy.

The Home Office is today making a statement about the national strategy for tackling ID fraud. Within this strategy, the Treasury and the FSA are working with the financial services industry to ensure it has in place the most effective systems to fight financial crime. New industry guidance to be published shortly will strengthen the system of ID checks while reducing the inconvenience for the consumer.

HMRC will carry out an assessment of the typical profile of frauds committed against it, to assist the banks in identifying suspect payments and accounts, enabling them to make timely suspicious activity reports to the National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS). HMRC will contact any firms that have been party to these frauds.

The Chancellor and the Home Secretary recently asked Sir Stephen Lander, chair-designate of the forthcoming new Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA), to undertake a review of the suspicious activity reporting regime. Sir Stephen is to report by the end of March 2006.

My noble Friend the Secretary of State and Lord Chancellor has made the following written ministerial statement.

"The Government announced plans for significant constitutional reform on 12 June 2003, designed to enhance the independence of the judiciary and to ensure clarity in the relationship between the Executive and the judiciary. I plan shortly to introduce the required statutory instruments to bring into force those parts of the Constitutional Reform Act 2005 that will deliver the central aspects of those reforms. As of 3 April 2006, I intend to bring the new Judicial Appointments Commission into being and commence those aspects of the Act that give statutory effect to the provisions of the concordat I agreed with the Lord Chief Justice.

Roles of the Lord Chancellor and Lord Chief Justice

As of 3 April, the Lord Chancellor's role as a judge will cease. The Lord Chief Justice will hold the additional title of President of the Courts of England and Wales and be legally recognised as the head of the judiciary in England and Wales. As set out in the Concordat, the role of the Lord Chief Justice will be significantly reformed and strengthened. To support the Lord Chief Justice, the Judicial Office for England and Wales has been established and the new head of that office has recently been appointed and taken up post.

"In addition, to give effect to the new arrangements for the handling of judicial disciplinary matters, a new office for judicial complaints will be established. The arrangements relating to judicial complaints and discipline will be published shortly".

Judicial Independence and Rule of Law

As of 3 April, for the first time there will be a guarantee of continued judicial independence enshrined in statute, underpinned by particular duties binding on the Lord Chancellor and Ministers of the Crown to uphold judicial independence. The Act also formally recognises the constitutional principle of the rule of law and the Lord Chancellor's role in relation to that principle.

Judicial Appointments Commission

As of 3 April 2006, the Judicial Appointments Commission will be formally launched. The appointment of Baroness Prashar as the inaugural Chair of the new Commission was announced on 6 October 2005. The Queen has given effect to the following appointments:

Judicial members

Lord Justice Sir Robin Ernest Auld

Lady Justice Heather Hallett DBE

Her Honour Judge Frances Margaret Kirkham

District Judge Charles William Frank Newman

Tribunal member

His Honour Judge David Stephen Pearl

Lay Justice Member

Lorna May Boreland-Kelly DBE JP

Professional Members

Mr Jonathan Philip Chadwick Sumption QBE QC

Mr Edward Nally

Lay Members

Professor Hazel Gillian Genn CBE

Sir Geoffrey David Inkin QBE

Mr Francis John Plowden

Ms Harriet Greville Spicer

Ms Sara Catherine Nathan

The appointment of the final judicial member will be announced shortly.

The Judicial Appointments Commission will have responsibility for making selections for the appointment of all judicial office-holders (as provided for in schedule 14 to the Constitutional Reform Act 2005). Baroness Prashar, the Lord Chief Justice and I have considered the arrangements necessary to ensure that the Commission can make the decisive and confident start that we are all agreed is essential. Details of these agreed arrangements have been published today on my Department's website at: http://www.dca.gov.uk/pubs/statements/st060123.htm. They will ensure that the transitional period is as short as possible, while bringing about a smooth and effective handover of business to the new Commission."

The television licence fee settlement announced by the Government in February 2000 provides for changes in the licence fee of RPI plus 1.5 per cent. for each year from 2000–01 to 2006–07. This settlement is designed to enable the BBC to provide a strong and distinctive schedule of high quality programmes and remain at the forefront of broadcasting technology. The settlement includes a requirement for the corporation to raise over £1 billion through efficiency savings and increased income over the period.

Application of the RPI figure of 2.7 per cent. for the year to September 2005, plus 1.5 per cent., to the current un-rounded licence fees produces new rounded totals of £131.50 for a colour licence and £44.00 for a black and white licence. The necessary regulations to bring these fees into force will be laid before the House in due course. The changes will come into effect from the 1 April this year.

I have today announced £11.4 million grant funding for fire and rescue authorities in England over the period April 2006 to March 2008 to support fire prevention work, including community fire safety, arson reduction and work with children and young people. This single grant to all fire and rescue authorities will replace the grants paid to some authorities under the Community Fire Safety Innovation Fund and the Arson Control Forum Implementation Fund in 2003–06, and provide revenue funding to complement the capital grants paid to all fire and rescue authorities under the Home Fire Risk Check Initiative in 2004–08.

Our substantial investment will support fire and rescue authorities, in partnership with others, to make continuing reductions in accidental fire deaths in the home and deliberate fires and to reduce inequality in the impact of fire by reaching the deprived households and communities most at risk. The additional funding will also assist the Government's wider neighbourhood renewal plans and complements our antisocial behaviour action plan launched recently. Copies of a table summarising the successful bids are available in the Library of the House.

I will be representing the United Kingdom at this month's Agriculture and Fisheries Council.

This being the first Council of the Austrian Presidency, the new Chairman of the Council will start by setting out his Presidency work programme.

The Energy Commissioner and the Agriculture Commissioner will then jointly present the Commission's Communication on a Biomass action plan. It covers four broad areas: use of biomass in heating and electricity generation; use of biofuels for transport; cross-cutting issues such as information campaigns; and research. There will also be an exchange of views on the action plan, during which I will intervene to welcome the initiative.

The Agriculture Commissioner will then present her proposal on organic farming, which aims to simplify and improve the structure of current regulations, setting out the scope of organic production and definitions for organic food. She will also present a proposal on changes to the rules for protected geographical indications and traditional specialties for agriculture products, which need changing to comply with a WTO ruling. These are simply presentations of the proposals to the Council with no discussion likely at this stage.

Cyprus will seek Council approval for a national state aid which it wishes to pay farmers and others as compensation for debts arising following the Turkish military intervention there.

In the afternoon, the Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection will present the Commission's action plan on animal welfare. He will also update the Council on the Avian Influenza outbreak including the outcome of the Donor Pledging Conference in Beijing and the situation in Romania and Turkey.

There will be a lunch at which the Agriculture Commissioner will update the Council on the outcome of the WTO agricultural negotiations in Hong Kong and the next steps.

In my statements of 18 October 2005, Official Report, columns 49–50WS, and 1 December 2005, Official Report, columns 36–37WS, I set out the need to streamline strategic health authorities (SHAs) and strengthen primary care trusts (PCTs) and the timetable and process for local consultations on these changes. Local consultations on changes to the boundaries of SHA began on 14 December 2005, Official Report, columns 151–153WS.

The NHS Chief Executive, Sir Nigel Crisp, has now announced the appointment of 11 people who will lead the transition between current and future SHAs. The transition leads will take on this responsibility from 1 February until, subject to the final results of the consultation, new SHAs are created. Their task will be to oversee the creation of the new system over the next six months and specifically to:

oversee planning for next year

the development programme for existing and new PCTs

communications.

These arrangements are being made for essential business continuity purposes. They do not prejudice the outcome of the consultation on the future shape of SHAs and each current SHA Board will remain accountable to the Department of Health for their part of the NHS until Ministers determine whether, following the consultation, to establish new SHAs. Existing SHAs will remain responsible for managing the consultation process following Commissioning a Patient-Led NHS.

The transition leads will ensure consistent management of the outcome of the consultation process across the cluster. Following the consultation process, if Ministers decide to establish new SHAs, the transition leads will be responsible for oversight of the process for establishing the new SHA, until permanent appointments are made. We expect to make permanent appointments to any new SHAs, if necessary, in the summer.

We have emphasised that it is essential to ensure that the transition leads are creating a new system locally which works effectively with all our partners and stakeholders and, particularly, promotes joint working between health and social care and in the field of public health.

The following have agreed to be SHA transition leaders:

John Bacon—London

Mike Farrar—Yorkshire

David Flory—North East

Neil Goodwin—North West

Terry Hanafin—Eastern

Thelma Holland—South West (South West Peninsula and Dorset/Somerset)

Trevor Jones—South West (Avon, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire)

Candy Morris—South East (Kent and Medway, Surrey and Sussex)

David Nicholson—West Midlands

Nick Relph—South East (Thames Valley/Hampshire and Isle of Wight)

David Sissling—East Midlands

Further to Baroness Scotland's statement of Wednesday 18 January, the Paymaster General and I are this afternoon meeting senior figures in law enforcement and the banking sector to discuss action against ID fraud. The significance of ID fraud has been further emphasised by recent attempts by organised criminals to defraud the tax credit system.

The meeting will discuss further ways of improving joint working on ID fraud, in particular through developing the work of public-private groups like the Home Office-led Identity Fraud Steering Committee (IFSC). Criminals who target the public sector are also likely to target the private sector. The meeting will also be discussing ways of ensuring the maximum appropriate sharing of information to protect public and private sector organisations from ID fraud.

As Baroness Scotland set out in her statement, the introduction of a secure national identity scheme/identity cards scheme using biometric information will make a step change in protecting people from identity fraud. As part of the work of the Ministerial Committee on ID cards, HMRC and the Home Office continue to evaluate the role of the national identity register in combating identity fraud.

At the meeting, the Paymaster General and I will be proposing a four step action programme to be taken forward urgently over the next few months under the Identity Fraud Steering Committee:

First, Government will explore with CIFAS—the UK's Fraud Prevention Service—the procedures for notifying them of the details of employees whose identities have been compromised as a result of large scale ID theft. This will help ensure that employees whose records have been stolen will not suffer adverse impact on their credit ratings and protect their identities from further abuse.

Secondly, the IFSC will take forward urgently plans to encourage credit reference agencies and CIFAS to share information with the public sector, for example by welcoming public sector organisations into the CIFAS membership. It will also work to ensure public sector organisations take full advantage of these new opportunities, for example by becoming full members of the CIFAS network. This will ensure that the details of criminals who defraud, for example, the tax credit system are shared in the same way as those criminals who attack private sector organisations. This will enable partners in both the public and private sector to detect and prevent identity related crime.

Thirdly, the National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS) and the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) will carry out a strategic review of all suspicious activity reports relating to tax credit and identity fraud to inform the strategy to tackle this threat.

Fourthly, HMRC will produce an assessment of the typical profile of frauds committed to assist the banks in identifying suspect payments and accounts, enabling them to make timely suspicious activity reports to NCIS and SOCA.

Further to the statement made, by the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry on 29 November 2005 launching the Energy Review, I am pleased to inform the House that the Government have today launched the public phase of this Review, and that I have written to all MPs to inform them of the launch.

The consultation has a broad scope and will consider both energy supply and demand. The consultation reinforces the Government's commitment to the four main policy goals as set out in the 2003 Energy White Paper:

to put ourselves on a path to cut the UK's carbon dioxide emissions—the main contributor to global warming—by some 60 per cent. by about 2050 with real progress by 2020;

to maintain the reliability of energy supplies;

to promote competitive markets in the UK and beyond, helping to raise the rate of sustainable economic growth and to improve our productivity; and

to ensure that every home is adequately and affordably heated.

The consultation document sets out the energy challenges we are currently facing, and invites responses to the evidence presented as well as asking what more should be done to secure clean, affordable energy for the long term, I am keen to stimulate a wide-ranging and informed debate on energy policy issues.

I have made copies of the consultation document, "Our Energy Challenge: securing clean, affordable energy for the long term" available in the Vote Office and the Libraries of the House. Copies and further information are also available on the Internet at www.dti.gov.uk/energy/review.

The key questions posed by the consultation document are:

What more could the Government do on the demand or supply side to ensure that the UK's long-term goal of reducing carbon emissions is met?

With the UK becoming a net energy importer and with big investments to be made over the next 20 years in generating capacity and networks, what further steps, if any, should the Government take to develop our market framework for delivering reliable energy supplies? In particular, we invite views on the implications of increased dependence on gas imports.

The Energy White Paper left open the option of nuclear new build. Are there particular considerations that should apply to nuclear, as the Government re-examine the issues bearing on new build? If so, what are these, and how should the Government address them?

Are there particular considerations that should apply to carbon abatement and other low-carbon technologies in the context of electricity generation?

What further steps should be taken towards meeting the Government's goals for ensuring that every home is adequately and affordably heated?

Comments are also invited on:

The long term potential of energy efficiency measures in the transport, residential business and public sectors, and how best to achieve that potential

Implications in the medium and long term for the transmission and network networks of significant new build in gas and electricity generation infrastructure

Opportunities for more joint working with other countries on our energy policy goals

Potential measures to help bring forward technologies to replace fossil fuels in transport and heat generation in the medium and long term.

The Government have a genuinely open mind on solutions. However, it is clear that there are no simple "one-technology" answers. The Review will take account of the evidence gathered during the consultation when developing its proposals.