Monday newpaper round-up: Smiths Group, jobs, BG

Smiths Group, the cargo-scanning equipment maker, is understood to have been contacted by the Government over the weekend as the authorities move to step up security in the wake of the Yemeni bomb plot. News of the discussions is likely to lift shares in the group, which already supplies the US with cargo-scanning devices designed to pick up explosives, as well as the shares of other detection equipment manufacturers, says the Telegraph.The demand for workers among British businesses has risen to its highest level in nearly a year, one of the country's biggest recruitment companies has said in a report to be published today, lifting hopes that the private sector may help to offset public sector job cuts. Reed.co.uk said that its job index had climbed to the highest level since December last year, the Times reports. BG Group is to go ahead with a $15bn (£9.3bn) liquefied natural gas project in Queensland, Australia - the UK oil and gas company's biggest investment, writes the FT. The 8.5m-tonne annual capacity of the planned Curtis Island plant, equivalent to 10 per cent of UK gas demand, will be sold mostly to China and other Asian customers when exports start in 2014, under existing purchase agreements. The plant will be the world's first to produce LNG from coal-bed methane, a type of natural gas taken from coal seams, according to BG. Smaller manufacturers are set to ramp production over the next three months as the recovery boosts domestic demand, the CBI will say today. This comes as Deloitte said confidence had returned to the sector as administrations fell 43 per cent in the first nine months of the year, reports the Independent.The Government is planning to change the law to persuade the major energy companies to build up enough gas stockpiles to last through a "supply emergency". Its new measures are intended to ensure that Britain does not suffer price volatility and shortages, as almost happened two winters ago when Russia turned off the taps to Europe over a dispute with Ukraine, writes the Telegraph.Primark, the discount fashion chain, is to turn the screws on its clothing rival Marks & Spencer in the crucial festive trading period by opening six new UK stores before Christmas. This assault on the British market comes as M&S looks abroad, with plans to return to opening stores in mainland Europe a decade after pulling out, the Independent reports. Some of Britain's largest companies have begun detailed examinations of BP's catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico with a view to learning from the oil major's misfortunes. Companies from several industries, not only oil, are looking at how to avoid a similar crisis befalling them in future. The board of Rio Tinto, for example, is understood to have commissioned a report into the BP accident. The Rio investigation covers a wide range of issues, from technical lessons to corporate organisation and communication with the media and governments, writes the Times.More than four-fifths of UK online firms are critical of the Royal Mail, and accuse the service of "stifling" the development of their businesses. Internet companies said they wanted the postal operator to improve its service standards in five crucial areas, including notification of the time or day of delivery and better weekend deliveries, according to a major survey of more than 600 online businesses by eBay, the internet auction giant, says the Independent.