HC Deb 21 May 1992 vol 208 cc254-6W
Mr. Livingstone

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will list the location of all facilities shared by Britain with any other countries in the field of chemical and biological warfare; and what is the nature of their work.

Mr. Archie Hamilton

No facilities are shared with any nation for chemical and biological warfare or defence. The United Kingdom abandoned all offensive chemical and biological weapons in the late 1950s. Since then the United Kingdom has been wholly concerned with chemical and biological defence, ie the provision of effective protective measures for the United Kingdom armed forces.

Mr. Livingstone

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many people are on the Chemical and Biological Defence Board of the Defence Scientific Advisory Council referred to in his answer to the hon. Member for Clackmannan (Mr. O'Neill) on 11 December 1991,Official Report, column 476; how many on the Chemical and Biological Defence Board are from universities and polytechnics; and what are the occupations and backgrounds of the others on the board.

Mr. Archie Hamilton

The Chemical and Biological Defence Board comprises up to 22 members, including 12 independent members from industry, universities and institutions of higher education, and 10 official members from the civil service and the armed forces. The current strength is nine independent members—five from universities and four from the private sector—and 10 official members—six service officers, of whom four are medically qualified, plus four senior scientific civil servants from various Government Departments.

Mr. Livingstone

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence in what year Britain stopped producing chemical and biological weapons; for what reasons this decision was taken; which committees within the Ministry of Defence and the Cabinet Office were involved in making the decision; and whether the papers are openly available to be seen in the Public Records Office.

Mr. Archie Hamilton

Britain stopped producing biological weapons in 1943 and chemical weapons in 1945. Biological weapon production, which was very limited, ended when the required stockpile had been achieved. Production of chemical weapons ceased because there was a sufficient stockpile, including captured German stocks. The United Kingdom unilaterally abandoned all offensive chemical and biological weapons over 30 years ago in the late 1950s and since then our role has been to ensure that the United Kingdom armed forces are effectively protected against chemical and biological weapons. Relevant papers are not available in the Public Records Office.

The rest of the question could be answered only at disproportionate cost.

Mr. Livingstone

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what are the names of the general defence agreements in which information in the field of chemical and biological defence is passed between Britain, the United States of America and other allies; and when each of these agreements was signed.

Mr. Archie Hamilton

There are a number of agreements with NATO allies covering research, development, deployment and standardisation of chemical and biological defence equipment. The following international agreements include chemical and biological defence in their scope:

  1. a. The United Kingdom-United States-Canada memorandum of understanding on chemical and biological (CB) defence which addresses research, development, production and procurement of chemical and biological defence equipment. This was signed in 1980 and has been an extremely effective means of ensuring close collaboration between the three countries.
  2. b. NATO army armaments group (NAAG) panel VII on nuclear, biological and chemical (NBC) defence and its sub-panels and working groups are the main NATO fora. CB defence is.also discussed by other NATO panels and by the NATO defence research group.
  3. c. The United Kingdom-United States-Canada-Australia American, British and Canadian Armies (ABCA) agreement between the Armies of the four countries. This includes a group known as the Quadrupartite Working Group (QWG) which has a panel on NBC defence.
  4. d. The United Kingdom-United States-Canada-Australia air standardisation co-ordinating committee agreement which also has a sub-group addressing CB defence.
  5. e. The United Kingdom-United States navies have an information exchange agreement which includes NBC defence in its scope.
  6. f. The technical co-operation programme which involves the United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand is concerned with collaboration in defence research and has a sub-group that is active on CB defence.
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  7. g. The Anglo-French defence research group allows the exchange of information and collaboration on research for CB defence.
  8. h. The Anglo-Netherlands-Norwegian collaboration project exchange of information and collaboration on research for CB defence.
  9. i. FINABEL, an army-army agreement covering CB defence information exchange between Britain, France, Italy, Netherlands, Germany, Spain and Belgium.

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