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As former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia remain in a critical condition after being poisoned with a nerve agent, inspectors arrive in the UK to investigate.

:: Who are the chemical weapons inspectors?

The team of independent investigators from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) arrive in the UK on Monday from The Hague.

:: Why are they here?

They were invited by the Government last week to verify analysis of the nerve agent used in the 4 March attack in Salisbury.

After that, the UK's Permanent Representative to the OPCW wrote to the Technical Secretariat, inviting them to come to the UK to take a sample, under Article 8 of the Chemical Weapons Convention.

:: What is the nerve agent they will be looking at?

Novichok is a Soviet-designed military grade nerve agent which was used to poison Sergei and Yulia Skripal, the UK Government says.

It was identified by experts at the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory at Porton Down.

Novichok meets the Chemical Weapon Convention's definition of a chemical weapon, toxic chemical and precursor.

:: What will the inspectors do first?

They will meet officials from the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory and police to talk about the process for collecting samples, including environmental ones, the Foreign Office has said.

The samples will be sent to "highly reputable international laboratories" selected by the OPCW for testing.

:: How long will this take?

Results are expected to take at least two weeks.

:: Who is to blame for the attack?

Russia has been blamed by the UK Government for the attack in Salisbury.

On 12 March, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson summoned the Russian Ambassador and asked for an explanation, setting a deadline of midnight the next day for Moscow to respond.

The Foreign Office said that there was "no meaningful response".

"It is therefore Russia which is failing to comply with the provisions of the convention," they concluded.

:: What does Russia say?

Russia denies any role in the poisoning and its ambassador to the EU, Vladimir Chizhov, even appeared to suggest the UK was behind it.

"When you have a nerve agent, you check it against certain samples you have in your laboratories," he said on Saturday.

"And Porton Down, as we now all know, is the largest military facility in the UK that has been dealing with chemical weapons research - and it's actually only eight miles from Salisbury."

Russian President Vladimir Putin said his country does "not have such means".

He added: "We have destroyed all our chemical weapons under international oversight unlike some of our partners."

:: What is the Foreign Secretary doing next?

Mr Johnson will be in Brussels to brief EU foreign ministers on the Salisbury situation on Monday, before meeting NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.

He has alleged that Russia has "been engaged in investigating the delivery of such agents, Novichok agents, for the purpose ... very likely for the purposes of assassination and that they have been producing and stockpiling Novichok".

This would be a violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention.

The National Security Council will meet later this week to decide what further measures could be taken, including targeting Russian wealth in Britain.

:: A poisoned spy - the story so far