"According to the OECD the UK is among the least regulated product and labour markets of any major industrialised country - and it will stay that way. "There is one continuing reason as you know why last year the UK was the third largest recipient of inward investment - over 130 billion dollars in the world - and is and remains the leading location for companies in Europe. "And to answer directly concerns that your Director General stated last week, yes there may be areas for example where employees are transferred to the private sector and they lose their pension rights, where we will look to improve the rights they have. "But there will be no new round of employment legislation that takes us back to the 1970s, the basic settlement in the last Parliament will remain. "And likewise we will not take risks with the hard-won macro-economic stability "Those fiscal reforms will stay. And they're not just right in themselves, I believe that they're vital to encourage the long-term investment that we need.

"If we can succeed in flattening as far as possible the swings of the economic cycle, then I think as you know business then has greater confidence in its ability to plan ahead and to invest." The Prime Minister said there remained weaknesses in Britain's economy however, including productivity. "Although there are many areas in which we do extremely well, the gap between us and our competitors remains worryingly large in other key areas." He said the gap could only be filled in investment particularly in education, skills and technology. Mr Blair added that education spending was rising every year as a proportion of national income, and 17,000 out of 25,000 schools had seen substantial capital improvements. Mr Blair said the UK was already one of the most connected economies in the world, Internet use was higher than in any other European country and that the next challenge would be broadband technology.

He added: "We are in the early days of broadband but it has the potential to revolutionise many aspects of our lives.". There is a greater chance of being acquitted by a jury than ever before, according to a government study that shows one in four defendants clears his or her name in court. There is a greater chance of being acquitted by a jury than ever before, according to a government study that shows one in four defendants clears his or her name in court. The findings have been seized on by civil rights groups who say thousands of innocent people would be denied a fair trial if the Government presses ahead with its plans to curb the right to jury trial.Of the 74,700 defendants who pleaded not guilty in the Crown Court last year, 25 per cent were acquitted compared with 18 per cent before Labour came to power in 1997.A spokesman for the human rights group Liberty said the report confirmed jury trial as an "important safeguard" in preventing miscarriages of justice. "This report shows that a high proportionate number of cases come before a jury are not strong enough to convince independent-minded people of somebody's guilt," he said.The proportion of cases discharged by the judge after a not-guilty plea also increased in 2000 to 36 per cent from 34 per cent in 1999.Defendants accused of criminal damage were most likely to be cleared while those who faced drug charges were more likely to be convicted.Liberty said the figures also showed that a move to increase the role of magistrates and district judges would lead to more convictions than under the present system.Last month Lord Justice Auld, in his recommendations for reform of the criminal justice system, called for an even greater restriction to jury trial than that proposed in Labour's two Mode of Trial Bills.