Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon on 21 June (HL724), what assessment they have made of further reports of chemical weapons being used against the Kurds in Northern Iraq.

The UK takes all allegations of chemical weapons use seriously. The use of chemical weapons is prohibited by the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) and is a clear threat to international peace and security. We will continue to uphold and protect the Convention's ban on the use of chemical weapons. The Government is aware of reports that chemical weapons were used in northern Iraq. We have no direct evidence to support these claims. We continue to monitor reports of use of riot control agents in Northern Iraq.