Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether their officials attended the UN Conference to negotiate a ban on nuclear weapons held in New York on 27 March; and if not, why not.

The British Government did not attend the negotiations on a treaty to prohibit nuclear weapons that began on 27 March in New York as we do not believe these negotiations will lead to effective progress on global nuclear disarmament. The best way to achieve this goal is through gradual multilateral disarmament negotiated using a step-by-step approach and within existing international frameworks.