HL Deb 06 March 1979 vol 399 c169WA
Lord HAILSHAM of SAINT MARYLEBONE

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether they will set out the names and effect of the treaties relating to chemical and biological weapons by which the United Kingdom, USA, USSR, and the GDR respectively are bound.

Lord GORONWY-ROBERTS

These states are parties to the two major treaties relating to chemical and biological weapons: the 1925 Geneva Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or other Gases and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare (Cmd. 3604) and the 1972 Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on their Destruction (Cmnd. 6397). The effect of the 1925 Protocol is to prohibit in war the first use between parties of both chemical and biological weapons. The effect of the 1972 Convention is correctly described by its title.