§ The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (Mr. Jack Straw)In response to an oral question from the right hon. Member for Sleaford and 21WS North Hykeham (Mr. Hogg) on 14 October 2003, Official Report, column 9, I under took to inform the House of the costs of the United Kingdom's involvement in Iraq. They are as follows:
Military Costs
The Chancellor has set aside £3 billion for military operations in Iraq. The Ministry of Defence has drawn down £1 billion from this special reserve during the 2003 Spring Supplementary Estimates. From this amount, the cost of preparatory activity in the 2002–03 financial year is currently estimated to have been £700 million. Further information on the total net additional cost of the military operation during the 2002–03 financial year will be found in the Ministry of Defence's Resource Account for 2002–03, which is due to be published around the end of October.
For the current financial year, further sums have been drawn down from the special reserve. These are subject to scrutiny by HM Treasury and Parliament through the normal estimates process.
Reconstruction
Her Majesty's Government plan to spend a total of £544 million on reconstruction in Iraq for the three years from April 2003, including our contribution to EC assistance and our secondment of personnel to the coalition provisional authority.
Other Costs
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office spent £5.62 million on additional security at posts in the Middle East during 2002–03, and expects to: spend a further £1.3 million in this financial year on security costs at posts directly attributable to our action in. Iraq.
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office estimates that it will have spent up to £12.1 million on the British Office in Baghdad and other bilateral representation by the end of this financial year.
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office forecasts a further £1.8 million of Iraq-related costs outside Iraq during this financial year.
Future Costs
Her Majesty's Government have not so far committed any other amounts in connection with the United Kingdom's involvement in Iraq.
22WSIt is too early to predict the continuing costs of military deployment, support for the Coalition Provisional Authority and development of bilateral relations with Iraq beyond the end of this financial year.