§ Lord Vivianasked Her Majesty's Government:
How many of the 300 sites in Iraq, provisionally identified by the United States Department of Defense as likely to hold weapons of mass 130WA destruction and how many of the further 700 sites identified by the United States State Department have so far been examined by allied forces; whether any sites, not previously identified, have been discovered and examined; and how many of these are within the area of operations of the British forces.[HL2655]
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Defence (Lord Bach):As at 20 May 2003, coalition forces had initiated investigations into 99 sites within Iraq which may be connected to programmes to develop weapons of mass destruction. Investigations have been initiated into a further 53 sites identified since the conflict began. The majority of these sites are outside of the area of operations of British forces. We expect further sites to be identified as investigations progress.
I am withholding details of sites in accordance with Exemption 1 (Defence, security and international relations) of the Code of Practice on Access to Government Information.