Written question asked by Peter Law (Independent (affiliation)) on Tuesday, 11 October 2005, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 13 October 2005. It was answered by Adam Ingram (Labour) on Tuesday, 25 October 2005 on behalf of the Ministry of Defence.

Earthquake Rescue Work

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what requests (a) the UK Government and (b) NATO have received from the (i) Pakistani, (ii) Kashmiri and (iii) Indian authorities for helicopters and other military equipment deployed in Afghanistan to be redeployed to humanitarian emergency rescue work following the earthquake.

Answer: The Pakistan Government asked the Foreign and Commonwealth Office on 9 October for United Kingdom helicopter support in the expectation that there were UK military helicopters in the region. At the time, there were no deployments of UK military helicopters in the region, including in Afghanistan. At DfID's request, however, the Ministry of Defence will deploy three heavy lift CH-47 Chinook helicopters, with accompanying personnel, for a four week operating period to support the Pakistan relief effort. A small military team travelled to Islamabad on 19 October to facilitate the deployment of these aircraft.The MOD also air-lifted two Puma helicopters from Seville, Spain, by RAF C- 17 for use by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in support of the relief effort. The helicopters arrived in Islamabad on 17 October.The requests that NATO has received are available on the NATO website.

Secondary information