In his Statement to the other place on 1 April (Official Report, col. 1769), my right honourable friend the Foreign Secretary (Mr Jack Straw) presented the review of FCO travel advice (Cm 6158), and invited comments from all quarters on its conclusions and recommendations. A number of associations, companies and individuals, many but not all from within the travel industry, responded to this invitation. The Foreign Secretary held a roundtable on 27 May with key stakeholders to discuss further their views on our travel advice service and how it might be improved. We are now in a position to announce to Parliament the revisions which will be made.We have discussed at length the difficult question of how we can best inform the public about the threat from terrorism in individual countries. As the Foreign Secretary said in his Statement of 1 April, our travel advice needs to strike a balance between danger and disruption: making public safety its prime concern while minimising the disruption which terrorists want to cause. Our advice must inform people of the threat from terrorism. When the threat is acute, it will inevitably lead to some disruption in travel in the interests of public safety. But at the same time we must make sure we do not do the terrorists' work for them by causing too much of the disruption which they seek.We have therefore decided that in future, in the case of intelligence-based terrorist threats, we shall advise against travel only in situations of extreme and imminent danger—if the terrorist threat is sufficiently specific, large-scale or endemic to affect British nationals severely (Option E on page 22 of the review). The factors which we shall consider in reaching this judgment will include the specificity and credibility of the intelligence information, the recent history of terrorist incidents in the area, the likelihood that the threat could affect British nationals, and the level of protection from the threat available to British nationals. One reason for making this change of emphasis is to maintain the credibility of our advice. We are concerned that many people continue to travel despite our warnings against all but essential travel. The public will be better served if such warnings are used more sparingly. I should add that we shall continue to prescribe against travel in cases of non-terrorist threats (coups, civil unrest, natural disasters) on the same basis as before.We have also decided to accept the recommendation on page 28 of the review to establish a standing advisory council of travel advice users. Details of membership, timing and agenda are still to be finalised, but the council would bring together representatives of the travel and insurance industries, NGOs and others to advise on issues arising from travel advice and its implementation. It would not be consulted on individual travel advice changes, which would continue to be the responsibility of officials and, ultimately, myself.We have also asked officials to implement a number of recommendations from the review, and from the subsequent consultation, to make the travel advice pages clearer and easier to use. Although we have achieved considerably greater clarity over the past year, further refinements have been suggested to ensure that those who consult the FCO website or the telephone call centre take away the key points.One fact that has emerged clearly from the review is that, while our travel advice service is heavily used, many different types of customer use it for widely varied purposes. Inevitably, we cannot satisfy all the demands, some of which are mutually exclusive, but I am confident that the adjustments outlined above will improve the overall quality of service and level of customer satisfaction.

My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Defence (Mr Geoffrey Hoon) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.As part of the routine management of UK forces in the Multinational Division (South-East) (MND(SE)) in Iraq, we intend to conduct a further roulement over the coming months. The lead UK formation, currently 1 Mechanised Brigade, will be provided by 4 Armoured Brigade from October 2004. In addition to 4 Armoured Brigade's headquarters and signals squadron, we plan to replace the major units currently in Iraq as follows:

My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Defence (Mr Geoffrey Hoon) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.The General Affairs and External Relations Council of the European Union agreed on 14 June to the establishment of a European Defence Agency in the fields of defence capabilities development, research, acquisition and armaments. The agency will make a major contribution to the development of the military capability of EU member states, a key UK objective for the European security and defence policy. By rationalising and harmonizing capability requirements, and linking those directly to industrial and research efforts, it will help to improve the military effectiveness of European nations which will benefit both the EU and NATO. The work of the agency will be directed by a steering board consisting of national Defence Ministers to ensure that it is subject to appropriate national control as well as being given the necessary political impetus.The Government regret that it was necessary to agree to the establishment of the agency, through a scrutiny override, before parliamentary scrutiny had been completed and before the debate, recommended by the European Scrutiny Committee on 9 June (22nd report, 2003–04, HC42-xxii), could be held. The United Kingdom did not wish to prevent the decision to establish the agency being taken at the Council meeting given the benefits expected from the creation of the agency and the influential role played by the United Kingdom in shaping and implementing its formation. I wrote to the Chairman of the European Scrutiny Committee on 10 June setting out this position. The Government are, none the less, fully committed to the need for national parliaments to have proper oversight of EU issues and the establishment of the European Defence Agency will be debated in European Standing Committee B on 22 June.

My right honourable friend the Minister of State for Defence (Mr Adam Ingram) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.As part of our normal process of keeping force levels under review, the GOC Northern Ireland, in consultation with the Chief Constable of the PSNI, has concluded that two of his units (not routinely based in Northern Ireland) can he removed from his command as they are not required for routine support to the police in Northern Ireland. Accordingly, two battalions which have been rear-based outside Northern Ireland since December 2003 and February 2004, will transfer to the command of CinC Land on 16 July 2004.This is a prudent measure based on the GOC's and Chief Constable's assessment of the current security situation and the success of the PSNI in dealing with the threat from terrorism with reduced military support. It does not affect the Army's ability to support the PSNI in countering the threat from terrorism and preventing potential public disorder. We will continue to keep force levels in Northern Ireland under regular review to best deliver the support required by the PSNI.

My right honourable friend the Minister of State for Defence (Mr Adam Ingram) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.Key Targets have been set for the chief executive of BFPO for financial year 2004–05. The targets are as follows:

My honourable friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Public Health (Miss Melanie Johnson) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement today.In July 2002, the Government's Chief Medical Officer, Sir Liam Donaldson, commissioned Professor Brian Toft to investigate the circumstances surrounding four adverse events that had occurred in the reproductive medicine units at the Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. This followed reports of a mix-up in treatment that led to mixed-race twins being born to a white couple.Professor Toft's report is published today. He concludes that a mixture of inadvertent human error and systems failure was involved.He makes a number of recommendations for the trust, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority and the department. He also recognises that significant progress has already been made to address the issues his recommendations raise.Responses by the trust, the HFEA and the department to the recommendations directed specifically at them are also published today.The Government recognise fully the distress that these mistakes and failings have caused to patients and their families, and the importance of ensuring that lessons are learnt to minimise the likelihood of them happening again. We are grateful to Professor Tort for a thorough investigation, and welcome his report.Copies of Professor Toft's report and the responses to it by the trust, the HFEA and the department have been placed in the Library.

My honourable friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Community (Dr Stephen Ladyman) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement today.

My honourable friend the Minister for Children (Margaret Hodge) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement:I am announcing a temporary suspension of adoptions of Cambodian children by UK residents.The temporary suspension is being introduced in response to concerns raised by and investigated by officials from the DfES who visited Cambodia, by the British Embassy in Cambodia and, separately, by other stakeholders about the intercountry adoption process in Cambodia.I believe that the safeguards in the Cambodian adoption system are currently insufficient to prevent children being adopted without proper consents being given by their birth parents and improper financial gain being made by individuals involved in the adoption process.The specific areas of concern include:Evidence relating to the systematic falsification of Cambodian official documents related to the adoption of children;Evidence relating to the extensive involvement of adoption facilitators in the adoption procedure in Cambodia even though Cambodian law expressly forbids facilitators participating in the adoption process;Evidence relating to the procurement of children for intercountry adoption by facilitators, including by coercion and by paying birth mothers to give up their children and;Concern about the prevalence of children trafficking and corruption generally in Cambodia.The temporary suspension will take effect immediately and will be imposed on all UK applications to adopt children from Cambodia where the prospective adopter has not yet received a matching report from the Cambodian authorities. This is the latest point in the adoption process in Cambodia where a temporary suspension could take effect before a Cambodian adoption certificate is issued.Although the UK authorities could intervene where a prospective adopter applies to bring a child into the UK there is a considerable risk that the child might be left in the situation where they have been legally adopted in Cambodia, and as such are no longer an orphan but are unable to enter the UK with their adoptive parents. This would pose a significant risk to the individual child and would clearly be unacceptable.I intend to consider reviewing the temporary suspension when the Cambodian Government pass new adoption legislation or if there is another development I consider to be significant, for example if Cambodia were to implement the 1993 Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in respect of Intercountry Adoption.Only in exceptional circumstances will I consider that the temporary suspension should not apply in a particular case. Any decision relating to a particular case will of course take account of what is in the best interests of the child and all the facts of the particular case.