The fact there has been no major conflict between Nuclear Weapons States, and that the United Kingdom has never needed to launch armed nuclear weapons, demonstrates the effectiveness of our nuclear deterrent.<\/p>
The nuclear deterrent exists to deter the most extreme threats to our national security and way of life, which cannot be deterred by other means. It is not intended to deter or respond to all possible threats or situations.<\/p>
For details on the Government's actions in response to the situation in Hong Kong, I refer the noble Lord to the reply given by the Minister of State, Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon, to Lord Alton of Liverpool in response to Question HL10654.<\/p>"} , "answeringMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4306", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Baroness Goldie"} } , "answeringMemberPrinted" : {"_value" : "Baroness Goldie"} , "attachment" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/resources/1270987/answer/attachment/1", "fileName" : {"_value" : "HL10654 - Hong Kong - China.docx"} , "title" : "HL10654 - Hong Kong; China"} , "dateOfAnswer" : {"_value" : "2020-12-21", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "isMinisterialCorrection" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "questionFirstAnswered" : [{"_value" : "2020-12-21T11:00:24.87Z", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} ]} , "answeringDeptId" : {"_value" : "11"} , "answeringDeptShortName" : {"_value" : "Defence"} , "answeringDeptSortName" : {"_value" : "Defence"} , "date" : {"_value" : "2020-12-14", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "hansardHeading" : {"_value" : "Trident"} , "houseId" : {"_value" : "2"} , "legislature" : [{"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/terms/25277", "prefLabel" : {"_value" : "House of Lords"} } ], "questionText" : "To ask Her Majesty's Government what criteria they use to assess the effectiveness of the UK's nuclear deterrent; and what assessment, if any, they have made of its efficacy in preventing the government of China from breaching the terms of Joint Sino-British declaration.", "registeredInterest" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "tablingMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/2018", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Lord Hylton"} } , "tablingMemberPrinted" : [{"_value" : "Lord Hylton"} ], "uin" : "HL11415"} ], "itemsPerPage" : 10, "page" : 0, "startIndex" : 1, "totalResults" : 1, "type" : ["http://purl.org/linked-data/api/vocab#ListEndpoint", "http://purl.org/linked-data/api/vocab#Page"]} }