The Ministry of Defence has today announced the award of a contract to AgustaWestland for the Integrated Merlin Operational Support (IMOS) programme, part of the wider Defence Logistics Transformation Programme, which seeks to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of military logistics support to the front line.

IMOS is a radical departure from the current method of supporting the Merlin helicopter: in-service support of the Navy and Air Force Merlin variants will be fused, under IMOS, into a single, innovative, availability-based contract. IMOS will focus support activities for Merlin at the main support base recently established at RNAS Culdrose. It will provide comprehensive technical servicing including supply and depth servicing, and it will incentivise industry to improve aircraft availability to the Front Line while reducing costs through-life.

The 25-year contract is worth approximately £450 million over the first five years and will result in approximately 20 per cent. savings—some £1 billion, over the 25 year life of the aircraft. The IMOS programme will complement the Defence Logistic Organisation's broader strategy to relocate the majority of support to the single most effective site, which is already showing early success with the Harrier and Tornado Fleets.

As set out in the Defence Industrial Strategy, the MOD is working to establish a Multi-Platform Strategic Partnering Arrangement with AgustaWestland. IMOS is a key element of this strategy which sets out to enable the delivery of improved output at reduced cost to the MOD while allowing industry to benefit from greater openness and business opportunity.

On 12 January I announced that to allow business and enforcers more time for preparation, we would defer the coming into force date of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 by means of an Order, under article 52 of the 2005 Order.

I have today laid the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Subordinate Provisions Order 2006, which will amend the coming into force date of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 from 1 April 2006 to 1 October 2006.

The Government's overriding aim is to save more people from death and injury by reducing risk and preventing fires.

Over the coming months, we will continue to work with stakeholders to ensure that all those affected by the new rules have the support that they need.

My right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary (Mr. Jack Straw) and Sir John Grant (UK Permanent Representative to the EU) represented the UK at the General Affairs and External Relations Council (GAERC) in Brussels on 27 February 2006.

The agenda items were covered as follows:

Preparation of the European Council, 23/24 March 2006

The presidency presented an annotated draft agenda for the 23/24 March European Council meeting to be held in Brussels. The focus of the European Council will be its annual review of the strategy for growth and jobs set out at Lisbon in March 2000 and re-launched last year. The presidency hopes the European Council will identify a series of priority actions to be implemented by the end of 2007 to fulfil these commitments. These priority actions should form a good basis on which to implement the second cycle of the Lisbon strategy in spring 2008.

In a short discussion, Institutional Relations and Communication Strategy Commissioner Wallstrom welcomed the annotated draft agenda particularly the focus on economic and energy issues. Several member states intervened on the structure of the draft agenda and priority action points.

Financial Perspective: Inter-Institutional Agreement (IIA)

The presidency presented its paper on progress in negotiations with the European Parliament on a proposal for renewal of an agreement between the EU institutions on budgetary discipline and improvement of the EU's annual budgetary procedure. The presidency reported that the trilogue meeting between representatives of Parliament, Council and Commission on 21 February had been constructive and that they aimed to reach an agreement on a new Inter-Institutional Agreement by April.

The presidency announced that the next trilogue meeting would take place on 21 March.

Western Balkans

Enlargement Commissioner Rehn briefed the Council following his recent tour with Commission President Barroso of the Western Balkans. They had underlined the region's perspective of ultimate EU membership if the countries met the strict conditions.

Commissioner Rehn expressed his hope that negotiations for a Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) with Serbia and Montenegro could be concluded by the end of this year but a precondition was full co-operation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). If Belgrade's co-operation with the ICTY does not improve, the Commission would be obliged to disrupt SAA negotiations.

CFSP High Representative Solana briefed the Council on the efforts of his personal representative. Ambassador Mirolsav Lajcak, to forge consensus between government and opposition parties in Montenegro on the modalities for the proposed referendum on the future of the state union with Serbia. The Council reaffirmed its support for the efforts of Ambassador Lajcak.

In a brief discussion of Kosovo, Member States underlined the need for further progress on standards implementation including decentralisation, and for the future status settlement to incorporate strong assurances in respect of the rights and cultural heritage of minority communities.

The Council adopted Conclusions covering Montenegro, Kosovo and ICTY co-operation.

Schengen visa fees

The Council held a short discussion on the draft decision to increase administrative fees for Schengen visa applications. The proposed increase results from the introduction of biometric identifiers and the establishment of a visa information system. Several Member States highlighted the need to take into account foreign and neighbourhood policy concerns when deciding on proposed increases to Schengen visa fees. The possibility of exemptions might also apply in certain circumstances.

The presidency took note of the concerns expressed. These will be taken into account in future negotiations with a view to the Justice and Home Affairs Council taking a decision on 27/28 April.

Iraq

The Foreign Secretary briefed the Council on his recent visit to Iraq and explained that the rapid formation of a competent and effective government was important for national unity. He urged the Council and Member States to offer support to Iraq's politicians and to the democratic process during this critical period. The Council adopted Conclusions condemning the bombing of the Holy Shrine in Samarra and subsequent violence.

Reactions in the Muslim world to publications in the European media

The Council discussed the cartoons that had appeared in European media recently and adopted Conclusions which recognise that freedom of expression is a fundamental right of a democratic society and strongly condemned the violent acts that followed publication of the cartoons. The Conclusions also encouraged the exercise of freedom of expression in a spirit of respect for religious and other beliefs and convictions and acknowledged the offence and distress felt by Muslims worldwide as a result of the cartoons. Ministers agreed to enhance dialogue with the Muslim world on these and other issues through various fora.

Middle East Peace Process

CFSP High Representative Solana briefed on his visit to Israel and the West Bank. External Relations Commissioner Ferrero-Waldner said that the Commission would contribute €120 million in assistance to the interim Palestinian Authority in response to the Quartet's call on 30 January to support measures taken by the interim government to stabilise the public finances.

Iran

German Foreign Minister Steinmeier briefed Partners on the latest developments on the nuclear file. CFSP High Representative Solana and External Relations Commissioner Ferrero-Waldner also briefed the Council on their recent meetings with Iranian Foreign Minister Mottaki which included discussion of the EU-Iran Human Rights Dialogue. The presidency agreed that Ministers should discuss Iran again following the 6 March International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Board of Governors meeting.

The Council adopted Conclusions which regretted Iran's decision to withhold co-operation with the IAEA; deplored Iran's resumption of enrichment-related activities; reaffirmed the EU's commitment to a diplomatic solution and called on Iran to reconsider its position on its nuclear issues activities and other areas of concern in order to avoid further deterioration of its relationship with the EU. The Council also called on Iran to properly protect diplomatic missions in Iran and to lift discriminatory restrictions against individual EU member states.

Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)

The Council had a brief discussion on a possible EU mission in support of the UN during the election period. CFSP High Representative Solana urged Member States to respond positively. Several Member States expressed their support for EU-UN co-operation with some seeking clarity on the proposed EU mission's mandate.

The Council adopted Conclusions welcoming the new constitution and the adoption of electoral law; encouraging the Transitional Government political parties and civil society to work together to ensure transparent elections in accordance with international standards; considering appropriate ways to provide support to the UN.

AOB—EU/Mercosur relations

Spanish Foreign Minister Moratinos briefed the Council on his visit to Latin America in advance of the EU-Latin America/Caribbean (LAC) Summit. He stressed the importance of concluding negotiations on an EU/Mercosur Association Agreement. External Relations Commissioner Ferrero-Waldner reassured the Council that the Commission was committed to achieving a successful conclusion to negotiations as soon as possible.

AOB—Children and armed conflict

French Foreign Minister Douste-Blazy briefed the Council on his recent visit with UNICEF to Uganda and Burundi. He urged the Council to take a more visible stance to address the plight of child soldiers. The Presidency noted that work was already in hand to develop a strategy for implementing EU guidelines on children and armed conflict.

AOB—Human Rights Council

The Council had a brief discussion on the latest draft UN Human Rights Council Resolution with several Member States offering views. The Presidency noted the exchange, and tasked the Political and Security Committee to look at next steps.

Today I am pleased to announce the launch of the consultation on new proposals to update the topic selection process for the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence's work programme. As NICE's role has changed in the last 12 months and the institute has taken on its new public health responsibilities, it is the right time to look at changes to the process of topic selection.

Topic selection is a critical part of the process of producing guidance. Deciding what questions we want to ask NICE on the clinical and cost effectiveness of treatments is often a good deal harder than getting the answers and no less important. It is therefore vital that the mechanisms we have in place for the selection of topics produce the questions on issues of real priority to the NHS and in the public health arena.

While the existing process has served well over the past four years, topic selection needs to keep with pace with changes in both the NHS and NICE. We need the process to be more responsive and have more NHS and public health representation to ensure the topics going to NICE are the ones where advice is most needed. At the same time, the selection of public health topics must also be fully integrated into the new process so any impact these topics might have on the institute's other work programmes can be identified.

The consultation will begin on 6 March 2006 and ends on 9 June 2006. Copies of the consultation documents will be available in the Library and on the Department of Health website at

http://www.dh.gov.uk/Consultations/LiveConsultations/LiveConsultationsArticle/fs/ en?CONTENT–ID=4131055&chk=7xp%2Bnk. All comments on the consultation should be sent to responsesniceconsultation@dh.gsi.gov.uk.

The Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 makes provision for the use of animals for education and training. In considering project licence applications for education and training, the Home Office defines education as the transfer of knowledge or the ability to formulate and test hypotheses, and training as the development or maintenance of manual skills.

In practice, project licences for training purposes have been issued only for the training of practising surgeons in micro-vascular techniques, when applicants could demonstrate that no alternative methods could achieve the specific training objectives. However, the 1986 Act does not prohibit the authorisation of projects for training in other manual techniques and applications for other categories of training in manual skills can be considered. After very careful consideration, the Home Office has recently granted a licence under the 1986 Act to train a small number of personal licensees in a specialist injection technique to enable progress to be made towards developing and introducing a novel test method that will allow a particular therapeutic product to be evaluated using a mouse model rather than the currently used non-human primate model. I am satisfied that this animal use is justified as an exception to our general policy that licences will usually only be granted for training in micro-vascular techniques and that the requisite level of technical competence could not be obtained by other means.

The exception made is specific to this application and programme of animal use. It is not intended as a broader change in policy on this issue.