§ 25. Mr. Michael McNair-Wilsonasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what progress has been made in achieving an international agreement to ban the use of chemical weapons.
§ Mr. HurdIt is important that progress should be made in this field. The use of chemical weapons is already banned under the 1925 Geneva protocol. At the 1982 session of the Committee on Disarmament some advance was made on the elaboration of a convention to ban the development, production and stockpiling of chemical weapons. Substantial problems remain, particularly on verification. The United Kingdom tabled a working paper on these problems and played an active part in later discussions.