TRIDENT TESTING

That this House notes the statement by the Secretary of State for Defence in a response to an Urgent Question on 23 January 2017 that, We do not comment on the detail of submarine operations, and his additional comment, Let me just be very, very clear: neither I, nor the Prime Minister, are going to give operational details of our submarine operations or of the systems and sub-systems that are tested through a demonstration and shakedown (DESO) operation; further notes that the then Defence Minister, the hon. Member for Ludlow, provided details to the hon. Member for Brighton, Pavilion in a written reply on 19 November 2012, Official Report, Column 239W, of a DESO in the Atlantic Ocean on 23 October 2012; notes in a second written reply the Minister revealed that as the UK is a signatory to The Hague Code of Conduct against Ballistic Missile Proliferation it is obliged to inform the 133 other signatories of all ballistic missile and space-launch vehicle launches and test flights; believes it is unacceptable that the 133 other states were informed of the Trident test conducted in June 2016 but that the information was withheld from the House; and therefore calls on the Government to acknowledge that democratic principles require the Government to inform Parliament of such UK national security policy matters.