Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent discussions the Government has had with United Nations representatives on the implementation of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

The Government does not believe the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) will bring us closer to a world without nuclear weapons. The UK will therefore not sign or engage with the Treaty.

The Government firmly believes that the best way to achieve our collective goal of a world without nuclear weapons is through gradual multilateral disarmament negotiated using a step-by-step approach, under the framework of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). The UK looks forward to working with all states to strengthen the NPT at the Tenth Review Conference in August.