Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many U.K.-US working groups currently exist pursuant to the 1958 Mutual Defense Agreement on Atomic Energy Matters; what subjects do they cover; and what is the annual cost of servicing these working groups.

There are 21 current UK-U.S. Joint Working Groups (JOWOGs), an information exchange arrangement with the U.S. under the Mutual Defense Agreement. The costs of participating in those JOWOGs is not held centrally in the format required and that information could only be provided at disproportionate cost.