Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether (a) she will be attending or (b) the UK will send Observers to the first meeting of states parties to the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons from 22 to 24 March 2022 in Vienna.

The Government does not believe the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) will bring us closer to a world without nuclear weapons. The UK will not sign the Treaty and the Foreign Secretary will not be attending the First Meeting of States Parties to the TPNW, nor will the UK send Observers. The Government firmly believes that the best way to achieve our collective goal of a world without nuclear weapons is through gradual multilateral disarmament negotiated using a step-by-step approach, under the framework of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).