§ Paul FlynnTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence pursuant to his answer of 24 September on deployment of military personnel in Iraq, reference 129882, how much the logistical help provided in Multinational Division South East will cost. [132415]
§ Mr. IngramThe Ministry of Defence identifies the costs of operations in terms of the net additional costs it has incurred. The costs which the MOD 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.
For the most part, the costs incurred will be those arising from the deployment and activities of the United Kingdom's force elements in Iraq. The same principle will apply to other nations contributing forces. There may be occasions when other nations draw food or fuel from UK sources. On such occasions, those drawing the supplies will be charged at an appropriate rate to recover UK's costs. Therefore the provision of this service will not incur additional cost. There may be other occasions where other nations make use of UK transport facilities where spare capacity exists. In such circumstances, a charge will not be levied. These are all reciprocal arrangements intended to make the most effective use of resources while not disadvantaging any of the troop contributing nations. Any attempt to apportion costs for this arrangement would be impractical.
It is too early to estimate the costs likely to arise from UK military operations in Iraq in 2003–04. Once these are known, additional funding will be sought in the normal way through Supplementary Estimates.