Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 28 November 2018 to Question 193427 on Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, on how many occasions under the trilateral Agreement of 6 September 1976 between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the European Atomic Energy Community and the Agency in Connection with the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, notifications were made by the UK of withdrawal of nuclear materials from safeguards for national security reasons in each of the last 30 years.

Information on withdrawals of nuclear material from 1978 until 1999 was provided in response to a PQ in July 2000 (OR column 1094W). Withdrawals year by year since 1999 are as follows: in 2000 there were 6; in 2001, 18; in 2002, 11; in 2003, 20; in 2004 19; in 2005, 17; in 2006, 16; in 2007, 31; in 2008, 19; in 2009, 15; in 2010, 14; in 2011, 17; in 2012, 19; in 2013, 34; in 2014, 18, in 2015, 29; in 2016, 44 and in 2017 there were 35 withdrawls. Information on withdrawals was published annually on the Department of Trade and Investment (DTI) website from 2001 then on the Health and Safety Executive website from 2007 and is now published on the website of the Office for Nuclear Regulation.