Russia (Hansard, 29 April 1999)

§ Mr. Matthew Taylor
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many times British and American officials have visited Russian facilities under the US-British-Russian Trilateral Process to end Russia's offensive biological warfare programme since the process was initiated in September 1992; what were the dates of each visit; and what were the names and locations of each facility visited. [82250]

§ Mr. Tony Lloyd
British and American officials have visited four Russian facilities under the US-British-Russian Trilateral Agreement. The visits took place from 5 to 16 October 1993 and from 10 to 21 January 1994. Under the terms of the Trilateral Agreement and in line with established practice under Section 13 of the Code of Practice on Access to Government Information, which covers Third Party's commercial confidences, I am unable to provide the names and locations of the facilities visited.

§ Mr. Matthew Taylor
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many expert working groups have been set up under the US-British-Russian Trilateral Process to end Russia's offensive biological warfare programme since the process was initiated in September 1992; and what are the names of each of these expert working groups. [82251]

§ Mr. Tony Lloyd
A working group, comprising UK, US and Russian officials, has met twice since the conclusion of the US-British-Russian Trilateral Agreement: in London in April 1994 and in Moscow in September 1994. The meetings focused on past offensive BW programmes, current BW defence activities, a review of the visits which had already taken place, a "rules of the road" document for visits to military biological facilities and conversion issues. No separate working groups have been established on other aspects of the Trilateral Agreements.

§ Mr. Matthew Taylor
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many times Russian officials have visited British and American facilities under the US-British-Russian Trilateral Process to end Russia's offensive biological warfare programme since the process was initiated in September 1992; what were the dates of each visit; and what were the names and locations of each facility visited. [82249]

§ Mr. Tony Lloyd
Russian officials have visited one British facility and three American facilities under the US-British-Russian Trilateral Agreement. The visit to the British facility took place from 22 to 25 March 1994. Those to the American facilities took place from 15 to 18 February 1994, from 22 to 24 February 1994 and from 28 February to 2 March 1994. Under the terms of the Trilateral Agreement and in line with established practice under Section 13 of the Code of Practice on Access to Government Information, which covers Third party's commercial confidences, I am unable to provide the names and locations of the facilities visited.