The UK Government has repeatedly stated its commitment to nuclear disarmament and to its obligations under Article VI of the Non-Proliferation Treaty "to pursue negotiations in good faith on effective measures relating to the cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date and to nuclear disarmament".

  The end of the Cold War opened up a window of opportunity for nuclear disarmament. The opportunity has not been taken up. In consequence, since the last NPT Review Conference in 1995 the prospects for global nuclear disarmament have deteriorated.

  India and Pakistan have tested nuclear weapons. It is likely that Iraq, Iran and North Korea want to acquire nuclear weapons.

  Russia has been antagonised by the expansion of NATO into Eastern Europe, by the war against Serbia in Kosovo, and by the US attempt to introduce Ballistic Missile Defence, overthrowing the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, and the US threat to introduce weapons in space, challenging the Outer Space Treaty. Russia has introduced a new generation of high precision inter-continental ballistic missiles. Acting President Putin is now saying that nuclear weapons can be used in response to conventional attack, which is already NATO's policy.

  The Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty has been severely damaged by the refusal of the US Congress to ratify it. It is to be hoped the UK will maintain pressure on the US to ratify it.

  The UK is encouraging US moves towards a Ballistic Missile Defence system by allowing it to expand its base at Menwith Hill in Yorkshire to provide communications for BMD. This expansion should be stopped. Ballistic Missile defence is a threat to the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.

  India and Pakistan are unlikely to sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty and non-nuclear states are unlikely to abide by it unless they see some progress by the nuclear states towards honouring their obligations under Article VI.

  A Model Nuclear Weapons Convention has been drafted by an international consortium of lawyers, scientists and disarmament specialists. It was formally submitted to the UN as a discussion paper in 1997 and was re-issued in the spring of 1999 as a book: "Security and Survival—The Case for a Nuclear Weapons Convention".

  The Canberra Commission concluded that there are no real technological barriers to concluding an agreement to prohibit and eliminate nuclear weapons. The determining factor is political will. The Model Nuclear Weapons Convention shows that an agreement on the elimination of nuclear weapons is possible to achieve, to implement, to verify and to enforce. John Spellar, Minister of State for the Armed Forces at the Ministry of Defence, has said the Model Convention "makes a useful contribution to the international debate on how to make progress towards the global elimination of nuclear weapons". (Letter to Roger Casales, MP, 7 September 1999.)

  A Gallup Poll in September 1997 showed that 87 per cent of British people believe that Britain should help to negotiate a global treaty to rid the world of nuclear weapons.

  I urge the UK Government at the NPT Review Conference in April to start negotiations for a Nuclear Weapons Convention.

  If nuclear weapons are not eliminated it is inevitable that they will spread to more countries and that some day they will again be used either by accident, miscalculation or on purpose.