GS(NP) 89: Letter to the Chairman of the Committee from the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs

 

Thank you for your letter of 28 July regarding the publication of the Road to 2010 paper and for letting me have a copy of your letter to Tessa Jowell.

 

I will leave Tessa to respond to your concerns about the handling of the paper. But I am pleased that you welcome the proposals which it sets out. I much appreciated the Committee's substantive and constructive contribution to the debate on these issues in its report on Global Security: Non-Proliferation. Our official response to the report will be ready for publication shortly; we will ensure that you receive an embargoed copy in advance in the usual way.

 

I am also encouraged that you feel you receive a good service from the FCO. I am keen to ensure that we continue to remain closely engaged with you, the Committee and with other interested Parliamentarians as we prepare for the NPT Review Conference next May and as we work to address the proliferation challenges the international community faces.

 

 

8 August 2009

 

 

Letter to the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs from the Chairman of the Committee

I thought you would wish to see a letter which I have written to Tessa Jowell about the publication arrangements for the Cabinet Office's Road to 2010 document on nuclear issues in the run-up to the 2010 NPT Review Conference. I therefore enclose a copy.

 

I was disconcerted that neither the Committee nor, as far as I am aware, the House was consulted during the preparation of the document nor given advance notice of the timing of its publication. The Committee was also not provided with copies. This seemed especially amiss given the Committee's publication, in mid-June, of its major Report on Global Security: Non-Proliferation, which represented the Committee's own contribution to the policy debate in advance of the Review Conference. In that Report, the Committee welcomed the Government's planned publication of a Road to 2010 document and recommended "that the Government should keep Parliament fully informed and engaged as it develops the Plan by summer 2009 and pursues it in the run-up to the Review Conference" (Paragraph 57).

 

The Committee continues to receive a good service from the FCO with respect to information about, and copies of, its own publications, so I was disappointed that this was not maintained in the case of this Cabinet Office document.

 

28 July 2009

 

 

 

Letter to Rt Hon Tessa Jowell MP, Minister for the Cabinet Office from the chairman of the committee

 

I am writing with regard to the publication of the Road to 2010 document by the Cabinet Office on 16 July, concerning nuclear issues in the run-up to the 2010 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference. I welcome the Government's publication of this document and set of proposals. However, I was disconcerted that neither the Committee nor, as far as I am aware, the House was consulted during the preparation of the document nor given advance notice of the timing of its publication. The Committee was also not provided with copies. This seems especially amiss given the Committee's publication, in mid-June, of its major Report on Global Security: Non-Proliferation, which represented the Committee's own contribution to the policy debate in advance of the Review Conference. In that Report, the Committee welcomed the Government's planned publication of a "Road to 2010" document and recommended "that the Government should keep Parliament fully informed and engaged as it develops the Plan by summer 2009 and pursues it in the run-up to the Review Conference" (Paragraph 57).

 

I would be grateful for an assurance that the Government will, as we requested, now keep Parliament fully informed and engaged with respect to the pursuit of the Road to 2010 proposals in the run-up to the Review Conference.

 

 

28 July 2009