Stock of novichok held

The request was partially successful.

Dear Ministry of Defence,

1: can you confirm or deny that the MOD is able to publicly confirm or deny there are stocks of novichok nerve agent or their analogues held in amounts regardless of size by the UK, or that such information shall be kept secret.

2: can you confirm or deny there are stocks of novichok nerve agent or their analogues held in amounts regardless of size by the UK, and if so, the quantity involved, and what agencies have access to it.

3: would it be possible that on a direct order from whitehall or other qualified person or department, that an amount of novichok or its analogues could be released to authorised parties for removal from secure storage facilities for purposes known or unknown by said storage facilities.

4: assuming such transfer had taken place as outlined in (4) what agency(ies) would hold records of this, in the cases or release being for a) analytical purposes, or b) secret operational purposes.

5: will asking such questions put me on some kind of watch list?

Yours faithfully,

edward kempe

SPO GlobalIssues-Office (MULTIUSER), Ministry of Defence

1 Attachment

Hello,

Please see attached, a letter on a time extension for the FOI request you have submitted.

Yours Faithfully,

Global Issues team

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ed left an annotation ()

So it is safe to assume that by refusal to deny, the british government hold stocks of novichok banned chemical weapon just down the road from that 'russian' attack.

correspondence@mod.ecase.gsi.gov.uk on behalf of Global Issues Secretariat,

2 Attachments

Dear [FOI #722313 email],

Please find attached our response to your recent enquiry.

Regards

Counter Proliferation & Arms Control Centre, MOD

Dear [email address] on behalf of Global Issues Secretariat,

would the quantity of novichok used in the murder attempts against russian ex spies/double agents over the last few years be within the limits set by the chemical weapons non proliferation treaty to be considered for research and analysis purposes?

Yours sincerely,

Edward kempe

SPO GlobalIssues-Office (MULTIUSER), Ministry of Defence

Hello Edward,

We are treating your follow up question as an FOI, as it links to the other FOI but has a broader context and we will aim to respond by the 26 April 2021.

Regards,

Counter Proliferation & Arms Control Centre, MOD

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Global Issues Secretariat,

1 Attachment

Dear Edward Kempe,

Please find attached our response to your recent enquiry.

Regards

Global Issues Secretariat

ed left an annotation ()

so after all the questions about novichok were refused or sidestepped, i draw the following inference:

that if novichok were NOT held in sufficient quantities for murder, AND the release of this information were against the interest of public and national security, then the intent is to bluff unknown enemies with the threat of using these chemical weapons.
in any other case it would have been easier to just say 'no we do not have enough of this nerve agent to kill'

or scenario 2:
the government holds enough novichok to kill one or more people. they dont want to tell us how many people they are capable of killing with the UK stock of novichok. they dont want us to know who has access to it. they dont want us to know who it has been released to in the past, not what those persons were authorised to do with it.
in any other case it would have been easy to say 'we have enough novichok to be used as a chemical weapon but it has never left the safekeeping of a secure laboratory and has never caused harm to humans.

therefore by logic, UK stock enough novichok to be used as a chemical weapon and it has been used in the field, possibly within the UK, or at least intend to threaten its use in the future.