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Ministry of Defence

Answer

Adam Price: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many UK service personnel have seen active service in Iraq since the beginning of hostilities; and how many have been issued with the aide memoire referred to in the answer to the hon. Member for Hull North (Mr. McNamara) on 4 October, Official Report, column 1879W. [194024] Mr. Ingram: [holding answer 26 October 2004]: Around 87,000 service personnel were deployed in support of Operation Telic between 18 January 2003 and 31 August 2004. This figure includes sailors and airmen, many of whom were not directly involved in combat, around 54,500 soldiers were deployed during that time. During the first phase of Operation Telic from 18 January 2003 to 2 May 2003, which included the major combat operations, around 48,500 service personnel were deployed, of which around 29,000 were from the Army. A significant number of these would not have been directly involved in combat. 20,000 aide memoire cards were produced in the original print run between February and early March 2003. These were distributed as a priority to ground troops who were expected to be involved in combat, but were available to other units as well. Since the end of the war-fighting phase of Operation Telic the responsibility for printing and distributing the cards has passed to individual units. Information on how many have been printed and distributed since the initial print run is not held centrally, and could be collected only at disproportionate cost.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

426 c1828-9W;426 c1832-3W; 194024

Session

2003-04

Subjects

Armed forces Deployment Iraq Peacekeeping operations Rules of engagement

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk