Fuji A., as far as I understand it, a training flight with an instructor/examiner still counts towards the Dual Flight With an Instructor. I believe a new AIC is due to be published soon and perhaps this will give us further guidance.
As for the signature on the dual flight, instructors have been invited by the CAA not to sign the log book if they considered the flight unsatisfactory. I think the difficulty is in the legal position for instructors to offer duty of care. We do not have professional indemnity insurance and it seems that there would be a case for an individual who crashed his aircraft and, say, broke his back, to sue the instructor who signed off the dual flight. Grounds for the suit would be failure to deliver duty of care. The lawyers that I have come across in aviation are telling me that instructors are very exposed in this regard. I personally suspect that the CAA know this too and have therefore issued the instruction that we don't sign the log book if we are unhappy with the flight. The FIC course also seems to encourage instructors to obtain professional indemnity insurance - which for most is a financial impossibility.
I also feel that by choosing not to follow the AIC's recommended content for the flight, the instructor unecessarily exposes himself to a similar legal risk. I'm sure a barrister could easily make an instructor look negligent by challenging him to explain his rationale for rejecting the CAA's recommendations. At our club, we therefore insist that the AIC is followed.
I know some people have an issue with the dual flights, but I instinctivley feel that they are good idea and time will tell if any accident statistics are reduced.
Finally, I think people talk highly emotively about the CAA wasting pilot's money with the introduction of this dual flight. In the course of 12 months, one of the hours you fly is with an instructor. That's basically another 30-odd quid on top of your normal flying costs - once every two years. I reckon incorrect leaning could account for more than that! The poster from Aberdeen (sorry can't get back to your callsign) has a case in claiming he's more experienced than some of the club instructors, but even then I'm sure he could rummage around local flying clubs and find someone from whom he could learn something.
Dual flight gets my thumbs up.