Written question asked by Nick Harvey (Liberal Democrat) on Thursday, 26 October 2006, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 30 October 2006. It was answered by Adam Ingram (Labour) on Wednesday, 8 November 2006 on behalf of the Ministry of Defence.

Urgent Operational Requirements

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will list the approved Urgent Operational Requirements from operations in Iraq and Afghanistan in (a) 2004, (b) 2005 and (c) 2006; and what the cost was of each.

Answer: As the operations in Iraq and Afghanistan are still ongoing, much information regarding specific Urgent Operational Requirements (UORs) remains operationally sensitive; and is withheld as its release would, or would be likely to, prejudice the security of our armed forces.In financial year 2004-05, UOR spend was £160 million for Iraq and £10 million for Afghanistan (rounded to the nearest £10 million). For 2005-06, a change in accounting systems has meant that the breakdown of UOR spend within overall operational costs is still being finalised. For 2006-07, as the operations are ongoing, costs are still being raised.As an indicative illustration of the equipment procured using the UOR process, in the order of three quarters of the funds approved for UORs for Iraq (post-warfighting) and Afghanistan have been for force protection (e.g. new body armour, defensive aids suites for aircraft and uparmoured land vehicles); much of the remainder has been for Command, Control, Communications and Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition and Reconnaissance (C4ISTAR) (e.g. additional high frequency radios).

Secondary information