Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the statement by the Courage Foundation on the investigation by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons into the alleged use of chemical weapons in Douma, Syria, published on 11 March; and what steps they intend to take in response.

We welcome the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) Fact-Finding Mission's thorough and evidenced report on the incident in Douma on 7 April 2018. The Fact-Finding Mission concluded that a toxic chemical, likely chlorine, was used as a weapon. We have confidence in the report's methodology and conclusions.

The Director-General of the OPCW has confirmed that that the OPCW Technical Secretariat took all views and evidence into account in reaching its conclusions. The Director-General answered fully questions put to him at sessions of the United Nations Security Council in December 2020, May 2020 and November 2019.