§ Mr. Llew SmithTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs when the hon. Member for Blaenau, Gwent may expect a letter on the extension of article III to the Anglo-American mutual defence agreement on atomic matters promised in his answer of 3 November,Official Report, column 1382; and if the letter will be published in the Official Report.
§ Mr. David DaviesI wrote to the hon. Member on 22 November. The text of the letter was as follows
I promised to write to you in response to your recent Parliamentary Questions on the 1958 UK/US Mutual Defence Agreement.As you know, the 1958 Agreement enables the United Kingdom and the United States to co-operate on the use of atomic energy for mutual defence purposes. While the main part of the Agreement is not time-limited, Article III bis, which relates to the two-way exchange of special nuclear materials and other products, requires periodic amendment to ensure its continuing relevance and validity. The most recent amendment to this article, which was ratified in 1984, expires at the end of this year. We and the United States have agreed that there should be a further amendment to enable these exchanges to continue for another ten years.Article VI of the Agreement addresses questions of the security and physical protection of the information and materials exchanged. While both the UK and US operate rigorous and effective materials control and accountancy arrangements, we have decided that it would be prudent to acknowledge explicitly the existence of these arrangements in the text of the Agreement. We have therefore agreed that Article VI should be amended accordingly.The text of the amendment to the Agreement was agreed in May this year following discussions between officials of the two Governments. The 1994 amendment was laid before Parliament on 21 October. The Ponsonby Rule requires it to remain there for 21 sitting days before it can be ratified".I am arranging for a copy of this letter to be placed in the Library of the House.