Written question asked by Glenda Jackson (Labour) on Wednesday, 14 May 2003, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Tuesday, 3 June 2003. It was answered by Geoffrey Hoon (Labour) on Tuesday, 3 June 2003 on behalf of the Ministry of Defence.

Ministry of Defence

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what evidence has been found following the conflict that Iraq had continued to develop weapons of mass destruction programmes, in defiance of UN resolutions. (Holding answer 19 May 2003).

Answer: Glenda Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what evidence has been found following the conflict that Iraq had continued to develop weapons of mass destruction programmes, in defiance of UN resolutions. [114513] Mr. Hoon: [holding answer 19 May 2003]: Coalition forces have identified materials which may be related to Iraqi programmes to develop weapons of mass destruction, including vehicles which appear to match descriptions of mobile biological agent production facilities in the document "Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction" published on 24 September 2002, and as presented to the Union Nations Security Council by the United States Secretary of State. We currently assess that these vehicles are military, are transportable systems designed for producing micro-organisms, and as such should have been declared by Iraq under United Nations Security Council resolution 1441, but were not. Our investigations continue. We expect that the gathering and collating of evidence from various sources of Iraqi programmes to develop weapons of mass destruction to be a long and complex task.

Secondary information