Disarmament (Hansard, 16 December 1977)

§ Mr. Frank Allaun
asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how much is being spent in the current year on research into ways of verifying disarmament methods.

§ Mr. Luard
No figure is available. Officials concerned with arms control and disarmament in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Ministry of Defence devote a proportion of their time to studying problems of verification.

§ Mr. Frank Allaun
asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many civil servants in his Department are engaged on disarmament matters.

§ Mr. Luard
In the Department itself 12 officials and 11 clerical and secretarial staff are engaged full-time on arms control and disarmament. In addition, our delegation at the Conference of the Committee on Disarmament in Geneva consists of three officials and two secretaries. Our delegation to the Comprehensive Test Ban Negotiations includes eight officials and three secretaries from the Diplomatic Service. The delegation to the Vienna negotiations on Mutual and Balanced Force Reductions includes three Diplomatic Service officials and four clerical and secretarial staff. The United Kingdom delegation to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation contains one official engaged on arms control and disarmament. Numerous other officials at home and abroad are involved part-time in these matters.
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§ Mr. Frank Allaun
asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will arrange for the United Kingdom to take its seat on the UN special committee on the distribution of resources which would be achieved by a 10 per cent. reduction in arms spending.

§ Mr. Luard
Although there have in the past been moves to establish such a committee, one has never been convened. This year's United Nations General Assembly has requested the Secretary General to arrange a pilot scheme, in which a selection of States would report their military budgets in an agreed standard and comparable form. This should help to pave the way for consideration of a scheme for balanced and verifiable reductions in military budgets, which we should welcome.