Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps he is taking to investigate what the source of the chemical weapons attack in Kafr Zita on 11 April 2014 was.

The UK was amongst the first to express concern at allegations that chemical weapons had again been used in Syria, and called for them to be investigated.

On 29 April the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) Director General announced he was establishing a Fact Finding Mission to determine the truth behind recent allegations of chemical weapon use in Syria. The UK has continued to stress the importance of this mission determining the full facts.

We are aware of at least 9 attacks in April in which the use of chemical weapons has been alleged. We consider it likely that chemical weapons have been used on at least some of these occasions. There are a number of pieces of information that suggest that only regime could have been responsible for these attacks, including the use of helicopters to deliver bombs to their targets and the fact that the attacks took place in opposition controlled areas. We have shared the information we hold with the OPCW.

We condemn the attack on the convoy carrying inspectors to Kafr Zita and urge all parties to the conflict to ensure that inspectors are given secure and unrestricted access to all relevant sites to enable the full facts to be established.