Written question asked by Mike Hancock (Liberal Democrat) on Thursday, 16 November 2006, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 20 November 2006. It was answered by Kim Howells (Labour) on Tuesday, 21 November 2006 on behalf of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Trident

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if she will make it her policy to offer not to replace the Trident nuclear weapons system in return for the Government of (a) North Korea and (b) Iran discontinuing their nuclear weapons programmes; and if she will make a statement.

Answer: Iran and North Korea signed up to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) as non-nuclear weapon states. Development of nuclear weapons programmes would be in direct contravention of their legal obligations under the NPT not to acquire or seek to acquire nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices. We continue to call on them to respect these obligations and abandon their weapons programmes. In contrast, the UK is recognised under the NPT as a nuclear weapon state. Ministers are considering the issues involved in the question of whether or not to replace the Trident system but final decisions have yet to be taken.

Secondary information