Written question asked by Llew Smith (Labour) on Friday, 17 September 2004, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 13 October 2004. It was answered by Denis MacShane (Labour) on Wednesday, 13 October 2004 on behalf of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to the Answer to the honourable Member for Birmingham, Selly Oak of 13th September, 424 c1454W, who authorised UNMOVIC and the International Atomic Energy Agency to excise parts of the Iraqi declaration of December 2002; which categories of information were removed; how many pages the excised sections comprise; and whether it was accepted by all UN Security Council non-permanent members that they should receive only an excised version of the Iraqi declaration.

Answer: Llew Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs pursuant to the answer to the hon. Member for Birmingham, Selly Oak (Lynne Jones) of 13 September 2004, Official Report, column 1454W, who authorised UNMOVIC and the International Atomic Energy Agency to excise parts of the Iraqi declaration of December 2002; which categories of information were removed; how many pages the excised sections comprise; and whether it was accepted by all UN Security Council non-permanent members that they should receive only an excised version of the Iraqi declaration. [189770] Mr. MacShane: The decision to excise parts of Iraq's declaration was made by UNMOVIC and the International Atomic Energy Agency, and agreed by the UN Security Council. The excised portion contained information about Iraq's nuclear weapons programme which could potentially be of benefit to non-nuclear weapons states seeking to pursue nuclear weapons programmes. It is not possible to say precisely how many pages of text were excised since the formatting of the excised version was different from that of the original. No member of the Security Council at the time raised any objection to receiving only the excised version of the declaration.

Secondary information