§ Lord Jenkins of Putneyasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they have noted the growth in the size and distinction of scientific support for the "nuclear winter" hypothesis and whether in the light of this they will consider re-examination of their defence and foreign policies.
§ The Minister of State for Defence Support (Lord Trefgarne)The Government are aware of the scientific work being undertaken to investigate the climatological consequences of the large scale use of nuclear weapons. Although much scientific work remains to be done on the nuclear winter hypothesis to resolve large uncertainties, that undertaken so far includes a number of reservations about the assumptions, and it is clear that no firm conclusions can yet be drawn. However, enough is already known about the immediate and direct effects of nuclear weapons to ensure that the overriding priority must be to prevent their use, while working unremittingly to achieve deep and equitable reductions in their numbers. These are the objectives of the Government's dual strategy of deterrence and multilateral disarmament.