Written question asked by Lord Arbuthnot of Edrom (Conservative) on Friday, 20 January 2006, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Tuesday, 24 January 2006. It was answered by Lord Reid of Cardowan (Labour) on Monday, 30 January 2006 on behalf of the Ministry of Defence.

Afghanistan

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many service personnel on duty in Afghanistan were injured in (a) action and (b) accidents, broken down by severity of injury, for each year since UK forces have been deployed there.

Answer: In the period 1 to 25 January 2006, no UK Service personnel have been categorised as very seriously ill/injured (VSI) or seriously ill/injured (SI) as a result of injuries sustained in Afghanistan in any circumstances. The information for previous years is not held centrally and will take some time to collate.I will write to the right hon. Member when the figures are available and place a copy of my letter in the Library of the House.The Ministry of Defence intends to publish casualty figures for Afghanistan from 1 January 2006 onwards, identifying the number of personnel categorised as SI and VSI, on its website in the coming weeks, and to update them regularly.

Secondary information

Type: Written question
Reference: 45457; 442 c28-9W;442 c29W
Session: 2005-06
Subjects: Armed forces Deployment Injuries Peacekeeping operations Staff Afghanistan
Link: View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk