Chemical Weapons (Hansard, 24 January 1994)

§ Mr. Cohen
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many British subjects have been appointed to the provisional technical secretariat of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, formed under the chemical weapons convention; and what posts they have filled.

§ Mr. Douglas Hogg
Three British citizens have been appointed to professional posts in the provisional technical secretariat. They occupy the posts of executive secretary, head of the chemical weapons branch of the verification division and head of the general services branch of the administration division. A further three British citizens are employed in the general services branch.

§ Mr. Cohen
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what is Her Majesty's Government's time scale for the ratification of the chemical weapons convention.

§ Mr. Douglas Hogg
We intend to ratify the chemical weapons convention as soon as the necessary implementing legislation is in place. The legislation will be introduced as soon as parliamentary time becomes available.

§ Mr. Cohen
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many papers were presented by the United Kingdom Government to the disarmament negotiations for the chemical weapons convention disclosing details of its past chemical weapons programme; and when these papers were presented.

§ Mr. Douglas Hogg
The United Kingdom has presented two papers disclosing details of its past chemical92W weapons programme. On 24 April 1979 the United Kingdom presented a paper titled "Visit to Britain by Chemical Weapons Experts" to the committee on disarmament, now known as the conference on disarmament. The second paper, titled "Past Production of Chemical Warfare Agents in the United Kingdom" was presented to the conference on disarmament on 17 August 1988.

§ Mr. Cohen
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether the status of the British subjects who have been appointed to the provisional technical secretariat of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, formed under the chemical weapons convention, will change if the United Kingdom has not ratified the convention by the time it enters into force.

§ Mr. Douglas Hogg
Only citizens of states which have ratified the chemical weapons convention will be eligible to work at the technical secretariat of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons after the treaty enters into force. The technical secretariat will replace the provisional technical secretariat on entry into force of the convention.