To ask the Secretary of State for Energy if the agreements made at the recent United States of America-Union of Soviet Socialist Republics summit meeting in Moscow have any direct or indirect bearing on the future of fusion energy research at the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority's Culham laboratories.

The Moscow summit noted the commencement of work on the conceptual design of an international thermonuclear experimental reactor, which was endorsed by the United States, the Soviet Union, Eurotom and Japan at a meeting in Vienna on 21–22 April 1988 under the auspices of the International Atomic Energy Agency. The work is limited to conceptual design and is not due to be completed until 31 December 1990; it is too soon to speculate about the outcome.