Last week, TLG Convenor, Lord Browne of Ladyton and Dr. Ian Kearns jointly published an article in “Strategic Europe”, a Carnegie Europe Series publication, entitled “Europe Needs to Shoulder More Responsibility for Addressing Nuclear Dangers”.
To read the article please click here.
The latest Westminster Hall Debate on Trident is now available on the website.
You can read further debates here.
Debates, and both written, and oral questions have all addressed the topic of Nuclear weapons this week.
Jim Cunningham MP has written to ask Liam Fox if he will publish in full the Trident replacement value-for-money review.
Read Dr Fox’s response here.
Bridget Phillipson MP also wrote the Defence Secretary to ask (1) how many suppliers of (a) equipment, (b) personnel, (c) parts and (d) assembly facilities for the Vanguard-class Trident submarine maintenance project there are in each (i) Government Office region, (ii) local authority area and (iii) parliamentary constituency; read the Minister’s reply here.
TLG member Sir Malcolm Rifkind MP in a debate on NATO in the Commons addressed Foreign Secretary William Hague MP, he stated:
The Lisbon statement said nothing on the future of tactical nuclear weapons in Europe. As the Foreign Secretary will be aware, the United Kingdom gave up its tactical nuclear weapons in the 1990s, as militarily useless and politically irrelevant. Will the British Government now support multilateral negotiations between NATO and Russia, so that tactical nuclear weapons can be removed from Europe as a whole?…you can read Mr Hague’s response here.
In a debate in the House, Jeremy Corbyn MP addressed the Secretary of Defence to ask him, ‘Exactly how much money, would be spent between now and then [2015] in preparing for the decision to replace [the current Trident Missile System]?’ Read Dr Fox’s reply here.
Debates and questions have been ongoing throughout this week with regard to issues relating to Nuclear weapons policy, Trident costs, and value for money review programmes.
A debate in the House of Commons between Cathy Jamieson MP, Alistair Burt MP, and Julian Lewis MP focused on Britain’s commitment to the Non-Proliferation Treaty and in particular the recent Anglo-French defence agreement impinging on the treaty’s article VI. You can read the debate in full here.
Angus Robertson MP has written the Secretary of Defence to ask if he will estimate the cost to the public purse of extending the life of the current fleet of Vanguard submarines to 2028. Read Secretary Fox’s answer here.
Bernard Jenkin MP has written to the Ministry of Defence to enquire as to what account the Department took of (a) defence inflation, (b) unforeseen design risks and (c) changes in specification between 2010 and 2016 in identifying cost savings in the Trident value for money review. Read Dr Fox’s response here.
A further Debate took place in the Commons between Julian Huppert MP, Dr Liam Fox MP, Paul Flynn MP, Julian Lewis MP, and John Woodcock MP. Read the full text of a lively discussion here.
