§ Mr. Lathamasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether he will make a statement on the progress of the discussions at the conference on disarmament in Geneva; and what action has been taken on the paper tabled on 12 July 1984 by the United Kingdom on verification on the non-diversion of certain civil chemicals into military stockpiles.
§ Mr. LuceI refer my hon. Friend to the reply I gave the hon. Member for Derbyshire West (Mr. Parris) on 20 February at column475.
The working paper, tabled by the United Kingdom on 12 July 1984 on the monitoring of the manufacture by the civil chemical industry of certain hazardous chemicals to ensure their wholly innocent end use, has been widely welcomed at Geneva by all delegations including those of the socialist group. As part of our efforts to make progress on outstanding verification issues in 1985, I intend to introduce during my visit to the conference on disarmament on 12 March further proposals on how the monitoring arrangements envisaged in the earlier working paper should be applied in practice.