Oral question asked in the House of Commons, by Lord Arbuthnot of Edrom (Conservative). It was answered on Monday, 16 July 2007 on behalf of the Ministry of Defence.

Iraq

Question: As the Secretary of State knows, the Defence Committee was in Iraq last week, and we were bowled over by the courage and enthusiasm of the men and women from the UK whom we met. Does he agree that there is a judgment to be made about the viability of our force there? Given what is happening there at the moment, does he agree that we are now close to the irreducible minimum?

Answer: I thank the right hon. Gentleman for sharing that impression, which has been left on all of us who have visited our troops in theatre, whether in Iraq or Afghanistan: there is no question but that they are the best of the best. For that reason, we have the responsibility to ensure that they are protected as well as possible in the dangerous tasks that we ask of them. The optimal number of troops is a matter for operational advice. The advice that I have received is that the troops currently there are configured in the right way to carry out the tasks that we ask of them, but we keep that matter constantly under review.

Secondary information