My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland has made the following Ministerial Statement.On Friday 20 February the Police Service of Northern Ireland made a number of arrests in connection with an alleged assault and abduction. The case is sub judice.Four people now face serious charges, including grievous bodily harm, possession of articles likely to be of use to terrorists and unlawful imprisonment. The PSNI are following a number of very definite evidential lines, including video material and the items, clothing and other forensic material recovered at the scene. The Chief Constable of the PSNI has made clear to me that he is satisfied that there was Provisional IRA involvement in the incident.These events are a matter of serious concern. As far as the overall situation is concerned, my assessment of the various paramilitary organisations' ceasefires, in the light of information I have received, remains unchanged. But all the indications are that there has been a serious breach of the requirement set out by the British and Irish Governments in paragraph 13 of the Joint Declaration for an end to all forms of paramilitary activity.Such behaviour is wholly unacceptable. As the Government have repeatedly made clear, parties cannot be half-in, half-out of the democratic process. All paramilitary activity must stop.These developments have inevitably had a serious impact on this week's discussions with the Northern Ireland political parties within the review of the operation of the Belfast agreement. At those meetings, we listened carefully to the views of the parties and, in particular, to their concerns about the implications of these events for the establishment of the trust and confidence required to achieve a successful outcome to the review and to restore devolved government in Northern Ireland.Both Governments are now asking the Independent Monitoring Commission, which was established in January, to examine Friday's incident in the context of the preparation of its first report on paramilitary activity. We have also asked the commission to bring that report forward from July to May. The report is expected to take account of all paramilitary incidents and activities within its remit since the commission's establishment. The commission is obliged by law not to do anything in carrying out its functions that might have a prejudicial effect on any legal proceedings.Both the British and Irish Governments are very clear that the achievement of a sustainable basis for political progress in Northern Ireland requires a full and permanent cessation of all paramilitary activity. As part of the wider agenda of the review, it is vital that we intensify engagement with the parties on this core issue, and we envisage that next week there will be a significant focus on it.

My right honourable friend the Minister of State for Northern Ireland has made the following Ministerial Statement.A review of the Police and Criminal Evidence (Northern Ireland) Order 1989 and the accompanying codes of practice is being undertaken by officials in the Northern Ireland Office.The review, which aims to bring the existing PACE legislation and the codes of practice in Northern Ireland into line with that in England and Wales, will adopt much of the new or amended legislation and revisions to the codes of practice introduced by the Home Office as a result of their fundamental review of PACE in 2002.It is my intention to issue a draft Police and Criminal Evidence (Northern Ireland) Order and associated codes of practice for consultation in autumn 2004 with the aim of them becoming operational by summer 2005.

My right honourable friend the Prime Minister has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.The Prime Minister has placed in the Library today the latest information bulletin on the activities of the United Kingdom delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and the Assembly of Western European Union covering the period November 2002 to October 2003.

My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for International Development has made the following Written Ministerial Statement today.Afghanistan remains a high priority for the Government. A lot has been achieved during the past two years. Around 3 million refugees have been helped to return to Afghanistan. Improvements have been made in education, with more than 4 million children back at school. Thirty seven per cent of pupils are now girls, up from 5 per cent in 2001. Twelve million children have been immunized against polio and 16 million against measles since 2002, saving 30,000 lives. Women are increasingly taking part in politics and the new constitution guarantees women 25 per cent of seats at the new parliament and equal rights and duties before the law. But there are still challenges ahead.As part of the UK's continuing commitment to Afghanistan I will be announcing, at the donor conference taking place in Berlin on 31 March and 1 April an increase in our assistance to at least £500 million over five years. This represents an increase of 150 per cent on our original commitment for the reconstruction of Afghanistan made in Tokyo in January 2002 to provide £200 million over these five years (the financial years 2002–03 to 2006–07). So far we have provided £110.5 million of this. This new pledge will include at least £75 million a year for reconstruction, plus assistance for counter-narcotics and conflict prevention.One of the major challenges Afghanistan faces is security, particularly in the south and east of the country, and the need to tackle the drugs trade. The UK is working to support the Afghan police and helping to build a new Afghan national army. We are also assisting with the disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration of former combatants. Our new financial commitment will help to address all these issues.

I made a Statement to this House on 19 January on airlinks between the Falklands and Argentina (Official Report col. WS39). I would like to report on developments since then.My honourable friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (Mr Rammell) travelled to Argentina on 16 to 17 February on a preplanned bilateral visit. He held talks on a wide range of international, regional and bilateral issues. The question of airlinks featured in talks with the Argentine Foreign Minister, Dr Rafael Bielsa. The talks were frank and constructive and they made some progress. Some proposals were discussed which they each agreed to look at further. These proposals primarily focussed on temporary arrangements for charter flights for 2004. Mr Rammell made clear that any arrangements would need to be acceptable to the Falkland Islanders.Regrettably, shortly following the visit, an article appeared in an Argentine newspaper, giving details of the talks and wrongly asserting that a "deal" on airlinks had been agreed. As Mr Rammell has indicated, this was not the case.Mr Rammell spoke subsequently to Falkland Councillors. They concluded that the proposals for temporary arrangements did not meet their concerns. However, they agreed that we should continue to discuss the issue with the Argentine Government with a view to securing a permanent solution to the question of charter flights rather than having further temporary arrangements.

The forthcoming business in the Council of the European Union is as follows:

My honourable friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence (Mr Ivor Caplin) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.A new call-out order has been made under Section 56 of the Reserve Forces Act 1996 so that Reservists may continue to be called out to support operations in Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The order will take effect from 1 March 2004, the date the previous order expires. There are no plans to call out Reservists compulsorily under this order as it is expected that the small numbers needed will be met through volunteers for service in those countries.

My right honourable friend the Minister of State for Defence (Mr Adam Ingram) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.On 17 April 2003, with the generous support of the Royal Mail Group, the Ministry of Defence introduced a free postal service to enable families to post packets up to 2 kg free of charge to BFPO addresses in the Gulf. The provision of a free packet service recognised the difficult conditions personnel were operating in and that it was not possible to provide the full spectrum of welfare support normally available to personnel on operations. While southern Iraq is not yet a benign environment, the level of welfare support and the facilities available on Operation TELIC are now comparable to those provided in other operational theatres.It has therefore been decided that from 8 April 2004 with the handover of 20 Armoured Brigade to 1 Mechanised Brigade this free service will cease. This date should allow for any Easter gifts to be sent under the free service.In common with other operations, personnel in Iraq are provided with free forces air letters and their electronic counterparts ("Blueys" and "eblueys") in addition to free Internet access and free 20-minute phone calls each week. Families may also send packets up to 2 kg in weight to personnel in the Gulf at a concessionary rate—the equivalent of the UK inland first class postal rate. The NAAFI/Expeditionary Forces Institute also sells through its outlets in theatre many of the small consumable items that families were previously sending to personnel and this has lead to a significant decline in the demand for the free packet service.

My right honourable friend the First Secretary of State and Deputy Prime Minister has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.

My right honourable friend the Minister for the Cabinet Office has made the following Written Ministerial Statement today.The aggregate of civil defence grants to be made for the financial year 2004–05 is £19,038,000. £100,000 will be retained as discretionary grant for special projects and special events deemed of benefit to the wider civil protection community in England and Wales. The remaining £18,938,000 will be allocated to individual authorities as set out below.