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Ministry of Defence

Well, I wish to make some progress now. I may get the chance later to allow the hon. Gentleman to intervene. Let me turn to the costs of Afghanistan and recommendation 8. On 26 January, my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State announced that some £1 billion would be spent on Afghanistan, which includes the £220 million being requested in this estimate. A breakdown of that was provided to the Committee at its request, the major elements of which are £121 million on infrastructure, stock equipment and the support items needed by our troops to carry out their daily duties, and £53 million on capital equipment relating to force protection. Those are the headline items, but the list also includes £150 million for resource expenditure and £70 million for capital expenditure. Resource costs include manpower-related costs of £8 million pounds, infrastructure costs of £26 million, equipment support of £15 million, stock consumption of £34 million, general costs—including food, fuel and movement costs—of £46 million and a contingency of £14 million to cover uncertainties over the planned expansion programme. The major elements of capital costs are the urgent operational requirement and equipment support costs of £53 million and a contingency of £17 million. Costs for future years are more difficult to forecast and the Department works hard to ensure that the figures presented to Parliament are reliable. It must be our main purpose to provide reliable data—not working figures—so that we can be held to account effectively. Supplementary estimates are the first occasion on which the Department can reach a reasonably firm conclusion. I spent 10 years in opposition—