This Government has demonstrated its commitment to our Special Forces by announcing a £2 billion programme of investment over the course of this Parliament. All military operations, including the activities of the Special Forces, are discussed and scrutinised at the highest levels of Government, including at the National Security Council. However, as it is the longstanding policy of the Government not to comment on our Special Forces, or to release information relating to them, I cannot comment on specific questions about personnel, equipment, discussions or activities in relation to these units.

All military personnel on UN operations deploy with personal equipment. Over the last six years these have included UN operations in: Mali, South Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia and Tunisia. In addition, under the current Memorandum of Understanding with the UN for the mission in Cyprus (UNFICYP) the UK Ministry of Defence provides two ambulances and 30 sets of Public Order Equipment.

We receive periodic requests from both the Government of Iraq and from the Kurdistan Regional Government for assistance. We have previously provided some 50 tonnes of non-lethal support, 40 heavy machine guns and nearly half a million rounds of ammunition to the Kurdish Peshmerga. The Global Coalition considers any requests, taking account of each contributing nation's own requirements and stocks. Availability and provision of ammunition to the Peshmerga were discussed during a recent senior British military visit to Erbil and, should a decision be taken that we can provide further assistance, this would be notified to Parliament in the normal way.

The UK is committed to the security of Lebanon, including helping the Lebanese state secure its borders. From 2012-2015 we used over £30 million to help the Lebanese army raise and equip three Land Border Regiments (LBRs) deployed along the border with Syria. The project provides the LBRs with border towers, non-lethal equipment, mentoring and training. This has had a direct effect in mitigating contagion from the war in Syria. The border regiments successfully repel frequent attacks by Daesh on Lebanese territory. 75% of the Syria-Lebanon border will be under state control by March 2016, and the rest will be further secured with the establishment of a fourth LBR in financial year 2016-17.

It seems strange that we give high-level British forces training to those fighting ISIL but we do not give them any of our equipment, so they end up fighting with Russian or other weapons. Will we look at changing that, so that they get body armour, medical supplies and, perhaps, more hardware?