Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of a high altitude nuclear explosion on the UK.

The Ministry of Defence (MOD) continually works across government to understand, deter, and where possible mitigate, the impact of a nuclear attack on the UK. As set out in the Strategic Defence Review, the Cabinet Office led Home Defence Programme will consider the impact of a range of threats to the UK and how they could be mitigated.

The MOD routinely tests the nuclear survivability, including Nuclear Electromagnetic Pulse survivability, of its critical capabilities to understand the ability of our armed forces to operate in a nuclear environment. Due to operational security, we can not provide details on the outcomes of these tests.