§ Lord Jenkins of Putneyasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they would agree to a verified moratorium on the testing and deployment of all nuclear weapons.
§ Baroness YoungA moratorium on nuclear tests would be no substitute for a fully verifiable ban. We are engaged at the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva in discussions on a comprehensive nuclear test ban. However, progress to this end has proved difficult. Important problems of verification remain to be resolved.
A moratorium on the deployment of nuclear weapons would freeze Soviet superiority in certain important types of weapon system. It would reduce the incentive for the Soviet Union to negotiate cuts, and, if it was to be effective, would take a long time to negotiate, especially the verification arrangements. This would distract attention from the more urgent task of negotiating reductions.