Oral question asked in the House of Commons, by David Leslie Taylor (Labour). It was answered on Monday, 14 May 2007 on behalf of the Ministry of Defence.

Iraq

Question: Will the Secretary of State tell the House what proportion of the amounts going to private security companies in Iraq are in respect of past or present advisers to, or members of, Bush Administration companies?

Answer: I will have to write to my hon. Friend to answer that. I am sorry that my brief does have that specific information. I know that a significant number of other Government Departments have contracts with private military security companies, which were detailed in another answer to the hon. Member for Lewes on 20 March. The detail is set out there if anyone wants to look at it. The contracts went substantially to a firm called ArmorGroup, of which the right hon. and learned Member for Kensington and Chelsea (Sir Malcolm Rifkind) is the non-executive chairman.

Secondary information