Oral question asked in the House of Lords, by Lord Ahmed (Labour). It was answered by Lord Drayson (Labour) on Thursday, 23 March 2006.

Iraq: UK Forces

Answer: My Lords, I am sure the whole House will wish to join me in welcoming the release this morning of Norman Kember and two Canadian hostages as a result of an operation by multinational forces, including British forces, and will wish to pay tribute to all those involved. Our troop levels go up and down in line with the tasks and the conditions on the ground. In the forthcoming roulement in May there will be a reduction. We have consistently said that we will stay in Iraq until the conditions for handover of security responsibility have been met. The assessment of whether those conditions have been met in any province will be led by the Iraqi Government through the joint committee for transfer of security responsibility.

Secondary information