Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what the Government's most recent assessment is of the likelihood of President Assad complying with the agreed Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons timetable for the removal and destruction of Syria's stockpile of chemical weapons.

Good early progress was made toward putting both Syria's chemical weapons manufacturing facilities and the weapons themselves beyond use. However, the programme has fallen behind schedule and the regime has missed a number of interim deadlines, including the 31 December target for the removal of priority I chemicals, and the 5 February deadline for the removal of priority II material. It is the regime's responsibility to comply with the timetable set out by the UN-Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).

The UN Secretary General, the OPCW Director General and the coordinator of the OPCW-UN joint mission have assessed that Syria has all the equipment it needs to ensure the expeditious removal of the chemicals concerned. To date, approximately 54 percent of the declared chemical stockpile has been removed from Syria. The regime must significantly accelerate the movement of the chemicals to port to enable their removal if the 30 June deadline for the elimination of the chemicals is to be achieved.