Persian Gulf (Hansard, 22 June 1998)

§ 12. Mr. David Borrow
How many British troops are currently deployed in the Persian Gulf. [45233]

§ The Secretary of State for Defence
Almost 1,000 service personnel from all three services are currently deployed on operations in the Persian Gulf.

§ Mr. Borrow
During the time I have spent on the parliamentary armed forces scheme, I have had the opportunity to have regular talks with members of the armed forces. They all share with me considerable pride in the role played by our armed forces in ensuring that Saddam Hussein was held to the promises he made to the United Nations earlier this year. Does my right hon. Friend agree that we must not be lulled into a false sense of security, and that we must remain prepared to make forces available to ensure that the promises made by Saddam Hussein are upheld in future?

§ Mr. Robertson
My hon. Friend is absolutely right. Our level of preparedness and our willingness to act if Saddam Hussein continues to confront the will of the international community and the role of the United Nations is not in question. My hon. Friend rightly says that many of our troops are still in theatre; not only those in Ali Al Salem in Kuwait—they went down there because of the immediate confrontation—but those who serve in the Armilla patrol, which has continued for about 14 years, and the pilots at Al Kharj in Saudi Arabia and in Turkey who police the no-fly zones in northern and 696 southern Iraq. All those personnel are in place to ensure that the Iraqi regime lives up to its obligations and does not continue to threaten its neighbours and the international community as it has in the past.

§ Mr. Julian Brazier (Canterbury)
Will the Secretary of State confirm that the first troops to arrive in the most recent Gulf crisis were American airborne troops? Will the right hon. Gentleman assure the House that, in considering future possible operations in the Gulf and elsewhere, he will maintain a full, rounded airborne capability, including the supporting elements and command and control facilities that are needed for rapid land-air deployment?

§ Mr. Robertson
The hon. Gentleman can be absolutely sure that, in the reshaping and modernising of our armed forces that will come from the strategic defence review, the capabilities we require to meet the sort of problems and conflicts we shall face in the future will be to his liking, and will make total common sense in relation to what the British people expect.

§ Maria Eagle
Are the service personnel who are currently serving in the Gulf offered the same cocktail of inoculations as those who served in the Gulf war? Is there any truth in newspaper stories that inoculation of service personnel may become compulsory? If so, will my right hon. Friend consider ensuring that, when ill effects are felt, personnel are compensated properly and immediately, without having to take the Government through the courts?

§ Mr. Robertson
No cocktail of drugs or inoculations was offered to any of our troops in the Gulf on this occasion. Anthrax vaccine was offered to our troops because that is a proven vaccination. To demonstrate my conviction that it was absolutely safe and had no visible side effects, I, my hon. Friend the Minister for the Armed Forces and the Chief of the Defence Staff, as well as the American Defense Secretary and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, took the vaccination. We believe it to be safe. We have no plans at present to make it compulsory, although in any future climate of threat we would have to make an assessment about how best to protect our troops.
My hon. Friend asked a generalised question about compensation. We take our responsibilities for the safety and health of our troops with the utmost seriousness, but I cannot say that we shall offer compensation against things that we believe to be intrinsically so safe that we are willing to take them ourselves.