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Afghanistan: UK Forces

My Lords, I am grateful to the Minister for repeating the Statement. I remind the House of my peripheral interest. The casualties are, of course, extremely regrettable. Sadly, we know full well that they will not be the last, but it is our duty to provide full moral support. During a recent Oral Question, I asked about the funding for the operation in Afghanistan. The Minister pointed, I think, to £1 billion of funding, but presumably that includes the DfID funding for the provincial reconstruction teams that we hope will do such an important task. No doubt there is much, quite carefully targeted work being done, which is very welcome. Is the military side of the operation funded from the MoD main budget as an enduring operation, or is the operation funded on the same basis as OPTELIC 1? In other words, is the operation an enduring one, funded by the MoD, or an additional one, in which the marginal or avoidable costs are funded from central Government? That is important because the top military advice in the country, referred to by the Minister, was given in the context of a funding envelope, as was the planning. In another Oral Question, my noble friend Lord Astor of Hever asked about helicopters. The Minister stressed the importance of managing the helicopter flying hours. Does that mean that commanders in the field are being rationed on helicopter flying hours, even if it is necessary to avoid breaching logistic limits rather than financial ones? It is fine for the Prime Minister to talk about extra resources being provided if necessary, but no one can do anything about a physical limit. My noble and learned friend Lord Mayhew asked about the rules of engagement, and the Minister gave absolutely the right answer. The only point to note is that our opponents in these sorts of operations always know exactly what our rules of engagement are. The only people who do not know are Members of Parliament. The Minister says that necessary manpower resources would be provided if necessary. It is important to remember that, if we wanted to deploy another brigade, we could not. We do not have another brigade. Part of the reason for that is the Bowmanisation project, now on track, which unfortunately takes out a whole brigade, so we currently have extremely limited manpower.