§ Lord Jenkins of Putneyasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether the assurances given on 25th November 1987 by Lord Glenarthur (H.L. Debt cols. 596–7) concerning the diversion of plutonium to illicit military uses can be reconciled with the earlier admission of the Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency in his report of June 1987 that safeguards are not being implemented and that the situation is getting worse and whether they will arrange for copies of that report to be placed in the Library.
§ The Minister of State for Defence Procurement (Lord Trefgarne)The report for 1986 by the Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency was published in July 1987. The safeguards statement in that report said: "the Secretariat did not detect any anomaly which would indicate the diversion of a significant amount of safeguarded nuclear material or misuse of nuclear facilities, equipment or non-nuclear material" … and concluded, "that nuclear material under the Agency safeguards in 1986 remained in peaceful nuclear activities or was otherwise adequately accounted for". There is nothing in the report to suggest that this situation is deteriorating. I am arranging for a copy of the report to be placed in the Library.