Iraq (Hansard, 20 October 2003)

§ Mr. McNamara
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many individuals in each of HM armed services were(a) charged and (b) disciplined for failing to answer call-up for the conflict in Iraq. [132183]

§ Mr. Caplin
Only the Reserve Forces are subject to call-out. To date no members of the Reserve Forces have been charged for failing to report for mobilisation after being served with a call-out notice. However, a small number of cases are still under investigation.

§ Mr. Amess
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence pursuant to his answer of 17 September 2003,Official Report, column 754W, on weapons of mass destruction, whether any of the civil servants searching for weapons of mass destruction were specifically recruited for this purpose. [132831]

§ Mr. Ingram
On 16 October there were six civil servants in Iraq working for the Iraq Survey Group who were specifically recruited to assist it in its task of searching for Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. This number will continue to change as new staff join and others complete their periods of duty.

§ Mr. David Stewart
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many ex-RAF personnel subject to reserve list regulations were called up for duty during operation Telic, broken down by occupation. [133172]

§ Mr. Caplin
There were 165 RAF ex-regular reservists accepted into service for duty on Operation TELIC. Information on their civilian occupations is not held centrally and could be provided only at a disproportionate cost.

§ Llew Smith
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the total cost to date has been of weapons, missiles, munitions and ammunition used in(a) the conflict in Iraq and (b) security and policing since the end of the conflict. [133316]

§ Mr. Ingram
The Ministry of Defence identifies the costs of Operations in terms of the net additional costs it has incurred. The costs which the Department would have incurred had the operation not been undertaken—expenditure on wages and salaries or on conducting training exercises, for example—are deducted from the total costs of the operation.
Calculating all the costs of military action will take some time since they will include the cost of ammunition, bombs and guided weapons consumed in excess of peacetime levels and the cost of repairing and replacing equipment destroyed and damaged. I am afraid, therefore, that I cannot yet provide cost information in the detail my hon. Friend requires.