asked the Lord Privy Seal if he will make a statement about progress at the Madrid conference.

The review meeting reconvened at Madrid on 9 February. Since then many Western delegations have spoken about the situation in Poland and have forcefully drawn attention to violations of the Helsinki Final Act by the Polish and Soviet authorities. My right hon. and noble Friend addressed the meeting in this sense on 12 February. There has been virtually no discussion since Christmas of other subjects.

In my right hon. Friend's view, has the Madrid conference produced any positive results in easing tension between East and West or in creating new confidence-building measures?

The tragedy is that, before martial law was imposed in Poland, we had made some progress towards agreement on a European disarmament conference and confidence-building measures, but it is difficult now in Madrid to discuss new agreements of that kind without first discussing how existing agreements have been flouted by Poland and the Soviet Union.