§ Lord Morris of Manchesterasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they will place in the Library of the House copies of the letters sent by the Ministry of Defence to Members of Parliament and Members of the House of Lords pursuant to Answers to Parliamentary Questions about British troops who could have been affected by fall-out from the destruction by United States forces of the Iraqi stockpile of chemical weapons at Khamisiyah in southern Iraq in 1991. [HL1881]
§ Lord BachYes. Parliamentary Questions (PQs) have been tabled on Khamisiyah since at least 1996, and I have asked officials to ensure that a copy of all letters written pursuant to these PQs have been deposited in the Library of the House as soon as possible.
§ Lord Morris of Manchesterasked Her Majesty's Government:
Why, and on what dates, the Ministry of Defence's original estimate of the number of British troops who could have been affected by fall-out from destruction by United States forces of the Iraqi stockpile of chemical weapons at Khamisiyah in southern Iraq in 1991 has varied since the stockpile was destroyed. [HL1882]
§ Lord BachIn 1996, based on information provided by the United States authorities, it was initially concluded that no British units would have been affected by the demolition of chemical agents at Khamisiyah. From July 1997, following more detailed analysis by the US authorities, it became clear that British forces could have been exposed to low levels of chemical agents. As a result, the Ministry of Defence reviewed the US modelling work and published a paper in December 1999 titled,Review of Events Concerning 32 Field Hospital and the Release of Nerve Agent Arising From US Demolition of Iraqi Munitions at the Khamisiyah Depot In March 1991 which can be found at: www.mod.uk/issues/gulfwar/info/medical/ khamisiyah.htm. The paper concluded that up to 9,000 British troops could have been within the modelled plume but that the possible level of nerve agent exposure would have no detectable effect on human health, in either the short or long term.
Further modelling work has been carried out in the US and was published in 2002. The US General Accounting Office is publishing a report on the modelling work later this year and once the US Department of Defence has responded to this, the MoD will undertake a further assessment and make the results public.