Government and Military

Directorate of Nuclear Policy, Room 7136

Ministry of Defence,

Main Building, Whitehall, London, SW1A 2HB

Dear Ms Zelter,

Thank you for your recent letter to the Prime Minister of 10^th May, about the Government’s policy on nuclear weapons. I have been asked to reply.

I must first apologise for the delay in writing to you direct. This was due to an administrative error within the MOD.

The Minister of State for the Armed Forces (Mr Spellar) has, however, recently replied to Tony Benn MP who had forwarded a copy of your letter to the Lord Chancellor. I hope you will now be aware of what he has said. If so, you will know that there is little we can aadd to Stephen Willmer’s letter to you of 2^nd March. As he stated, the threshold for use of nuclear weapons clearly is very high. However, it is the Government’s position that there is no useful benefit to be gained from hypothetical speculation on precisely where this threshold may lie. It is only possible to determine the legality of any specific use of nuclear weapons in the light of all the circumstances prevailing at the time that use is being considered. An action that is legal in one set of circumstances might be illegal in another. The Government has made clear many times, that we are confident that the UK’s minimum nuclear deterrent is consistent with international law.

You infer that the Government’s refusal to reveal any conceptual planning on potential use of nuclear weapons is as a result of a weakness in the legality arguments supporting our nuclear weapons policy. This is not true. Maintaining a degree of uncertainty about our precise capabilities is a key element of a credible minimum deterrent. It is precisely to retain this degree of uncertainty and so sustain our minimum deterrent that secrecy must be maintained in this area.

Once again please accept my apologies for the delay in responding to your letter.

Alan Hughes.

Printer friendly version

Home | Top