Wednesday 5 May 2004

October to December 2003

Early assistance for organisations with some access (albeit very limited and variable) to Darfur:

Save the Children UK (for north Darfur) £0.5million

World Food Programme £2 million

International Committee of the Red Cross £1 million

Assistance to refugees in eastern Chad:

UN High Commission for Refugees £1 million

Total financial assistance October to December 2003: £4.5 million

Continuing pressure on the Sudanese Government to allow humanitarian agencies unimpeded access to affected populations and security to operate, and to stop the fighting.

January to March 2004

Following partial opening up of Darfur for humanitarian agencies, support to meet basic needs of affected population:

UN Children's Fund £1 million

Médecins Sans Frontières (for south Darfur) £1.15 million

GOAL (for north Darfur) £0.58 million

Action Contre la Faim (for north Darfur) £0.25 million

Additional assistance to refugees in eastern Chad:

World Food Programme £1 million

UN High Commission for Refugees £1 million

Total financial assistance October 2003 to March 2004: £9.5 million

Support to UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs to improve its co-ordination and assessment capacity in response to the crisis:

Senior humanitarian adviser based in Khartoum for three months (extended to six months)

Three humanitarian affairs officers based in Geneina, El Fasher and Nyala for three months

One support staff for one month through International Humanitarian Partnership

One focal point for UN co-ordination and logistics for one month through UN disaster assessment and co-ordination team

Continuing pressure on the Sudanese Government to allow humanitarian agencies unimpeded access, protect civilians from attack and agree a ceasefire with international monitoring.

Involvement in ceasefire talks between SLM/JEM and the Government of Sudan in N'Djamena.

April 2004 onwards

Oxfam (for north and south Darfur) £2.2 million

Planned further contributions to UN and other international organisations.

Total financial assistance to date: £1.7 million.

We will shortly begin a process to recruit a new chief commissioner and a full set of commissioners to the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission. We expect the process to take some months, with the new chief commissioner and commissioners being announced in the autumn. We propose to invite a number of those commissioners to take office soon after appointment. We will do this after discussion with the chief commissioner-designate, who will also be invited to join early. He or she will not become chief commissioner until the end of Brice Dickson's appointment. The remainder of the incoming commissioners will take office on 28 February 2005, at which point those who have served two terms will leave.

We will begin this process shortly. In the mean time we will be working on the details of the process. We will use search consultants. An independent assessor will be involved throughout and there will be a human rights expert, alongside the independent assessor, on the panel which interviews candidates.

This does not mean that the current commission is winding down—far from it. They have a great deal still to achieve.

From the outset, each commissioner has played an important role in promoting a culture of rights in Northern Ireland. They will leave behind an impressive body of work which I believe history will judge kindly. They have served in the best interests of all the people of Northern Ireland, at times under great pressure. For this, they deserve our gratitude and our support in their ongoing work.

For our part, the Government remain committed to establishing a broadly based forum on the Bill of Rights. We will engage the political parties in a renewed effort to build consensus to this end.

We understand there is much detail behind these proposals which people will want to discuss. I will be inviting the parties to put forward their views. I am clear that these discussions must respect the terms of the Belfast agreement and the independence of the commission. In this context, we will also conclude the review of the commission's powers.

I would urge all parts of the community to work with us over the coming year. There are significant opportunities ahead to build on the great progress we have seen since in the field of rights since the Belfast agreement was reached in 1998. It is imperative that all parts of the community take those opportunities and everyone receives the same benefits.

The review process is now well advanced. A thorough search to identify all potentially relevant cases has been undertaken, and the process has been extended to include cases involving carers. These measures have resulted in an increase in the total number of cases subject to review from 258 to 298.

To ensure thorough and independent scrutiny of all cases, a three-stage review process has been established. Every case file is subject to a preliminary review by a Crown Prosecution Service area to ascertain its key characteristics. Cases are then passed to a central review team comprising prosecutors who are highly experienced in complex criminal casework. A smaller number of cases are then referred to an interdepartmental group, for a final decision on whether the legal representatives of the convicted persons should be notified that there may be features in a case that warrant further consideration by the Court of Appeal or the Criminal Cases Review Commission. The interdepartmental group works under my direction, and includes representatives from the police, Crown Prosecution Service and Criminal Cases Review Commission.

Reviews have been completed in 97 cases. In 38 of these the person convicted is still serving a custodial sentence.

A significant further number of cases are at an advanced stage of review.

Letters have been sent to the legal representatives of five convicted persons, notifying them that it may be appropriate for the safety of their clients' convictions to be considered further by the Court of Appeal or, if appropriate, the Criminal Cases Review Commission. Two of those convicted are sentenced to life imprisonment and remain in custody. Two have already unsuccessfully sought to appeal their convictions.

I have made the Court of Appeal aware of the action I am taking and have liaised closely with the chairman of the Criminal Cases Review Commission to ensure that any cases referred to these bodies will be treated expeditiously. My office stands ready to refer appropriate case files to the CCRC.

The fact that a case has been referred to legal representatives of the convicted person does not amount to a positive determination that their conviction is unsafe. Should any appeals result from this review, it will be for the Crown Prosecution Service to decide independently whether to contest the appeal.

Sixteen live cases were identified by the CPS as potentially affected by the Cannings judgment. Fifteen have been reviewed. Two cases have been discontinued: a Hampshire case discontinued before trial and a Coventry case discontinued before retrial.

It would not be appropriate to place in the public domain the names of defendants or convicted persons in these cases. This will be a decision for them, following advice from their legal representatives.

CPS areas, the central review team and the interdepartmental group continue to accord this work the highest priority. I am determined that the review should he completed as soon as possible, to bring to an end this period of uncertainty for all those involved. I shall keep the House informed of further progress.

Key Target 1

Sustain threshold level performance at each of the key stages 1, 2 and 3 by remaining at least 3 per cent ahead of national (England) achievement.

Sustain the percentage of pupils obtaining A^* -C at GCSE as a three-year rolling average.

Sustain the percentage of students obtaining A–E at A-level as a three-year rolling average.

Key Target 2

Sustain SCE's notional position in the English local education authority league tables, within the leading 25 (of 150) LEAs at each of key stages 1, 2 and 3.

Key Target 3

At the higher levels of attainment (i.e. level 3 + at key stage 1, level 5 + at key stage 2, level 6 + at key stage 3) match national level of performance in 50 per cent of the 12 subject elements in 2004, rising in equal steps to 66 per cent in 2006.

Key Target 4

For GCSE, show improvement in average points scores by achieving at least the England capped upper quartile figure (38.8).

Key Target 5

To achieve grade 4 or above (on the Ofsted seven-point scale) in at least 85 per cent of schools inspected, in each of the following areas:

• Overall effectiveness of the school
• Overall standards achieved
• Pupils' attitudes, values and personal qualities
• The quality of education provided by the school
• The leadership and management of the school

Key Target 6

To demonstrate customer satisfaction with a survey result of 69 per cent satisfaction or more from Army continuous attitude surveys.

www.foi.mod.uk. Since the scheme was published in November 2002, we have continued to look for opportunities to extend the commitment to make information available proactively. To date, a further five classes of information have been added to the original publication scheme and a process for identifying and adding more is in place. The new classes cover information provided by the Army Historical Branch, the Naval Historical Branch, Defence Analytical Services Agency (DASA) Corporate Documents, Defence Data Definitions, and Defence Statistics.

As a further step in this process, I am announcing today that a new class of information will be included to require publication of the consolidated results of corporate-level quantitative opinion surveys carried out to gauge the attitude of members of the public to the Ministry of Defence and the Armed Forces. The results of similar surveys undertaken internally with a random cross-section of the department's own staff will also be published. The results of the external corporate-level surveys undertaken since 1999 are also being placed in the Library of the House.

From October 2004, we also plan to release the results of the continuous attitude surveys which are undertaken by each of the three Services to measure the morale and understand the concerns of their personnel across a spectrum of issues. These surveys are sent out annually to a random sample of around 8,000 military personnel at all ranks. This commitment to publish the results of these surveys will also be reflected through a class of information in the MoD's publication scheme.

Key Target 1: Deployable Personnel

To meet 100 per cent of the commander in chief's requirements for secondary care personnel under DMETA command for operational deployments.

Key Target 2: Military Training

To ensure that 80 per cent of all DMETA personnel, whose medical category permits, achieve their service's annual mandatory individual military training.

Key Target 3: Training Success

a. Initial Training (Phase 2).

To provide initial training (phase 2) that meets the requirements, professional standards and timescales defined by the single services.

b. Career, Professional and Continuation Training (Phase 3).

To provide career, professional and continuation training (phase 3) that meets the requirements, professional standards and timescales defined by the single services.

Key Target 4: Efficiency and Cost Management

a. DMETA Estate

Ensure the rationalisation and efficient usage of the current DMETA estate, reducing the balance sheet value of the estate as at 1 April 2003 by at least 50 per cent by 2010, thereby reducing the cost of training.

b. Cost Measurement

To develop an output cost-based methodology for efficiency and unit cost performance measurement for implementation by April 2005.

Key Target 5: Customer Focus

To develop and implement by 1 April 2005 a measure of the extent to which customers value the quality of DMETA outputs.

These announcements are a tremendous achievement which show that we are making great strides toward our aim, which I confirmed in the Sustainable Communities Plan in March 2003, of making all social housing decent by 2010.

Modernising Company Law White Paper of July 2002. Copies have been placed in the Libraries of the House and the Vote Office.

The OFR regulations will require quoted companies to provide a narrative report setting out the company's business objectives, its strategy for achieving them and the risks and uncertainties that might affect their achievement. It will require companies to report on other matters where these are necessary for an understanding of the business. These matters include employees, the environment and social and community issues. It is proposed that where directors believe that they have nothing to report on those matters, they will have to state that fact. The OFR will represent a move from reporting on past performance to an assessment of the future prospects of the company in both the short and the long term. It will enable shareholders to judge whether the directors' view of the business meets their own long-term investment needs and their own expectations of the way good companies should perform—companies that understand the importance of human capital, open dealings with customers and suppliers, and their impact on the environment and on the wider community.

The OFR will apply to all quoted companies. These are companies registered in Great Britain that are either listed in the Uk or in any other EEA state or whose shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange or NASDAQ. The regulations also implement related changes to the directors' report of other companies required by the Accounts Modernisation Directive.

A number of quoted companies already prepare OFRs or adopt the broad approach set out in a guidance statement originally introduced by the Accounting Standards Board in 1993 and revised in 2003. The directors of those companies recognise that such reporting can contribute to the profile of the company and offer the market confidence about its management and prospects. The OFR regulations will provide directors with the opportunity to provide key information to shareholders within a statutory regime which will give reassurance on the quality of the information provided. It will enable the best companies to maintain and promote their high standards while allowing other companies to raise their standards. It will contribute to market stability, shareholder engagement, investment, company performance and corporate social responsibility. It will facilitate informed dialogue between directors and shareholders, encouraging responsible institutional investors to adopt an understanding of the particular businesses their investments rely upon.

The Accounting Standards Board will be preparing a new reporting standard for the OFR. In addition, alongside the consultation, a working group chaired by Rosemary Radcliffe and representing a range of business, investor and wider interests, is publishing practical guidance for directors on the preparation of the OFR. I am extremely grateful to the working group for the hard work it has undertaken on this essential element of the OFR.

The consultation period will end on 6 August. After taking into account responses to the consultation, I intend to lay the regulations before the end of the year, so that they can apply to accounting periods beginning on or after 1 January 2005. I hope that all those interested in this issue will respond to our consultation and help us to ensure that the OFR is an effective tool.