Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government why the counter proliferation programme has been suspended until further notice.

The FCDO suspended in part its Counter Proliferation Programme for FY 20/21 as we reprioritised to tackle the Covid-19 response, and in view of HMG's Overseas Development Assistance prioritisation exercise.

Covid-19 has made it more difficult to carry out international programme work with many Counter Proliferation programmes being deferred to next year.

However, we have made exceptions for critical national security activity for the remainder of FY 20/21 - including support to the IAEA in relation to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action on Iran. The Foreign Secretary has since approved remaining programme allocations for this financial year. The Counter Proliferation Arms Control Centre in the new FCDO is now assessing how to deliver a programme to ensure that we meet critical counter proliferation objectives for the remainder of this FY.