Section Menu

Non Proliferation - UK The Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) National Authority

The Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), which entered into force on 29 April 1997, is the first arms control treaty which seeks to introduce a verifiable ban on an entire class of weapons of mass destruction. It is administered by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which is based in The Hague. The Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform (BERR), as the UK CWC National Authority, is responsible for the implementation of the CWC in the UK, the Crown Dependencies and the Overseas Territories. The powers to implement the declaration and verification provisions in the CWC are contained in the Chemical Weapons Act 1996. As of 4th December 2007 the OPCW had 183 State Parties.

There are three main elements to implementation of the CWC which have a direct impact on government facilities, industry and academia:

• Declarations;
• Inspections;
• Trade controls.

Under the CWC, a State Party must submit detailed declarations on certain activities involving certain chemicals. These declarations are subject to verification by inspectors from the OPCW. Trade in chemicals covered by the CWC is controlled through the United Kingdom's export and import licensing procedures.

The Act requires the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry to prepare a report on its operation in each calendar year, and to lay a copy of the report before each House of Parliament. The reports for the years 1997 - 2004 are available in PDF format by clicking the Related Documents links to the right of this page.

The Secretary of State is also responsible for the appointment of the CWC National Authority Advisory Committee (NAAC) which was created in 1997 to advise Ministers on the actions taken by the National Authority to ensure compliance with the CWC and the Act.

This page is linked to sections explaining the National Authority Advisory Committee, Scheduled Chemicals, Declarations and the Second Review Conference of Chemical Weapons where more detailed information may be found in the sub-menu located beneath this menu item to the left of this text. This page also contains copies of recent Annual Reports in the Related documents Section. Further information on interested external organisations may be located in the External Links section of this page. Both sections may be found to the right of this page.

Declarations - If you have any urgent queries regarding declarations please contact the CWC National Authority. Additional contact details may be found by selecting the contact menu item located on the left of this page. Guidance notes and forms for the current declaration rounds for the Annual Past Declaration and Aggregate National Data Declaration for 2006 to the OPCW may be found by following the related link on the right of this page. The declaration guidance notes and forms for the Annual Anticipated Declaration round for 2007 can also be found by following the same link.