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Written question asked by Liam Fox (Conservative) on Thursday, 12 June 2008, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 16 June 2008. It was answered by Bob Ainsworth (Labour) on Wednesday, 18 June 2008 on behalf of the Ministry of Defence.


Bomb Disposal

Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence on how many occasions armed forces bomb disposal units have supported domestic counter-terrorism operations in each of the last five years.
Answer

The Ministry of Defence maintains a capability to dispose of conventional munitions and to defeat improvised explosive devices in the UK in response to requests for assistance from UK police forces. Police forces do not distinguish between counter-terrorism and non-counter-terrorism events when they ask for assistance.The following table shows the number of occasions in each of the last five calendar years on which armed forces personnel have been called out to deal with explosive devices. Joint Services EOD Operations Centre record incidents according to type of device involved.

Type of device
Conventional munitions Improvised explosive device
2003 2,678 1,377
2004 2,355 1,160
2005 2,549 974
2006 2,725 741
2007 2,352 666

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
477 c1013-4W; 211965
Session
2007-08
Related items
Bomb Disposal
Thursday, 3 July 2008
Written questions
House of Commons
Subjects
Bomb disposal
Link
View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk