I have been asked to reply on behalf of the Department for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs.

The Ministry of Defence (MOD) receives weekly reports from the Mission Commander and UK personnel within the European Union Training Mission (EUTM) Mali. Through these means, the MOD is able to monitor the efficacy of the mission against the agreed political objectives set out in the mission's Crisis Management Concept.

To date, the EUTM Mali has trained the first of four battalions specified in the mission mandate. This first battalion consisted of approximately 650 personnel and completed its training in early June.

Currently, around 700 soldiers of the second battalion to be trained are in the process of reporting to the training camp.

Our current assessment is that the mission is delivering against its objectives. However, it is too early to assess the effectiveness of the trained troops on operations as they have only recently deployed forward.

Training will begin once planning has been finalised and the Libyan selection of recruits has occurred; we anticipate that this will be later in 2013.

The programme being designed for the training of up to 2,000 Libyan armed forces personnel involves all military training being based at Bassingbourn Barracks, Cambridgeshire.

Details of the training programme and vetting arrangements are still being developed in conjunction with the Libyan Government. The Ministry of Defence has been working closely with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Home Office to ensure that security and immigration controls will be maintained on those who arrive to undertake training. Her Majesty's Government has asked the Libyan authorities to screen fully all trainees for medical, physical and behavioural suitability. Trainees who do not pass the vetting or immigration assurance process will not be allowed to travel to the UK.

As UK operations in Afghanistan draw down, operational commanders are identifying the equipment and materiel that is no longer required. Once identified as surplus, a decision is made on whether to redeploy, sell, gift or destroy the equipment. The gifting of equipment and materiel to the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) will generally be co-ordinated with ISAF. The underlying requirement is that all gifted equipment is sustainable in terms of cost of ownership, support and enduring training.

Thus far approval has been granted to gift various check points, ‘sangers’ (military turrets), logistic support bridges and some medical supplies.

All proposals for gifting equipment follow parliamentary, Treasury and National Audit Office rules and will be assessed against the Consolidated EU and National Arms Export Licensing Criteria. Any proposed gifting, packages to the ANSF over £250,000 will be laid before Parliament.

The core values and beliefs of our armed forces will be the foundation of any direction and guidance given to recruits at the Afghan National Army Officers Academy. These underline respect for human rights and obligations under international law. The course training package covers the issues surrounding women's rights within the 'equality and diversity' component of the syllabus.

The Ministry of Defence's (MOD) military operation in Libya was not eligible to be counted as overseas development assistance (ODA).

The MOD's Defence Advisory Team which works on capacity building and security sector reform were counted as partially ODA eligible for financial year (FY) 2012-13. The total value of ODA spend on Libya from these activities in FY 2012-13 was approximately £295,000.

As ODA is reported by calendar year, final details of 2012 expenditure will not be available until they are published in Statistics on International Development in the autumn.

The core values and beliefs of our armed forces provide the foundations of any direction and guidance given to the Afghan national security forces. These underline respect for human rights and obligations under international law.

UK forces are no longer delivering training to the Afghan national army at the lowest levels in Central Helmand. The UK continues to deliver initial training to Afghan national police instructors at the Lashkar Gah Training Centre (LTC) in Helmand Province. The training delivered specifically covers topics such as values and ethics, the appropriate use of force, fundamental standards of human rights and how these are incorporated within the Afghan constitution.

The UK has not provided any specific internal security training, public order training, sniper training or training in the use of heavy military equipment to Syria since President Bashar al-Assad came to office in July 2000.

The small number of Syrian personnel who attended initial officer training and staff courses between 2000 and 2008 will have been exposed to UK doctrine on these topics.

On current plans, the Afghan National Army Officer Academy mentor team will have eight female only positions filled by Ministry of Defence personnel. These posts are dedicated to the support of female cadet training.

In addition to the mentoring roles, the UK will deploy a number of personnel in related support positions. We expect these will be open to female personnel, but will not know the total number deployed until decisions around deployments are made nearer the time.

All positions will be subject to review as lessons are learnt during the initial mentoring phase.

The Official Development Assistance (ODA) criteria are set by the Development Assistance Committee of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Expenditure on police training in routine policing functions, and the removal of landmines where it is for civilian purposes, are reportable as ODA. The Ministry of Defence reports to the OECD, through the Department for International Development, on activity that is eligible to be counted towards Her Majesty Government's ODA target.

It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

In 2012 the Ministry of Defence spent £23.3 million on infrastructure in Afghanistan. This figure incorporates all building works carried out on the UK military bases in Helmand Province. As net additional costs of UK military operations in Afghanistan, these costs were resourced by the Treasury reserve.

In addition £203,000 was spent from the Commander's Stabilisation Fund on improving the infrastructure in local communities in Helmand Province. The Commander's Stabilisation Fund is funded by the Conflict Pool. We will consider whether these costs could be counted as overseas development assistance (ODA) as part of the Conflict Pool and departmental ODA return for 2012.

Operation Oqab Tsuka was conducted under the previous administration using armed forces personnel and resources already in Afghanistan. As such the additional costs incurred in undertaking this specific operation as part of the wider Operation HERRICK are not held in the format requested. The costs of this operation were not counted as official development assistance activities.

The total cost of training the Afghan National Police in 2012, is a matter for the Government of Afghanistan. The NATO Training Mission—Afghanistan (NTM-A), supports the Government of Afghanistan in generating and sustaining the Afghan National Security Forces, including the Afghan National

Police. It had a total budget of $11.2 billion last year. In 2012, the Law and Order Trust Fund, which supports the payment of Afghan National Police salaries, had a total commitment of around £600 million with the UK contributing £10.5 million.

The UK channels its direct support for the Afghan National Police through a number of different avenues, predominately multilateral missions. In 2012, the provision of senior and specialist advisors to the EU Police Training Mission to Afghanistan totalled 16 police officers in key positions. We also provided three senior civilian police advisors and 11 military personnel to the NTM-A's policing arm, alongside numerous police advisory teams whose numbers fluctuated throughout the year.

Today there are 64 military personnel working in Lashkar Gah Training Centre, formerly known as the Helmand Police Training Centre, and 105 UK personnel working in a police advisory function at ANP district/provincial command centres.

The marginal cost recorded for the Defence disaster relief response to Haiti in 2010 under Operation PANLAKE was £620,000. These costs were subsequently recovered from the Department for International Development (DFID). As the lead Government Department for humanitarian operations, DFID reports Overseas Development Assistance-eligible activity rather than the Ministry of Defence.

The majority of requests have been for military Search and Rescue (SAR). Military Search and Rescue (SAR) statistics are published on annual and quarterly basis by the Defence Analytical Services and Advice (DASA) organisation. Copies of the 2012 figures (published on 31 January 2013), which also includes yearly figures from 2003, are available in the Library of the House.

There were also two call outs which were not for Search and Rescue:

We do not have a British Military Advisory and Training Team (BMATT) in the Gambia. However, since 2006 the Royal Gibraltar Regiment has provided twice yearly short-term training teams (STTT) to help the Gambian Armed Forces (GAF) prepare for deployment to the African Union-United Nations Mission in Darfur (UNAMID).

The nature of the training that the Gibraltar Regiment provides has changed over the past 18 months from directly training the Gambian contingent to the delivery of support to the Gambian training school and train-the-trainer activity with the Gambian instructors. A team consisting of four regular Gibraltar Regiment personnel and a Royal Navy doctor will conduct the next iteration of training in March 2013, delivering train-the-trainer activity and concurrently helping the Gambian staff to prepare the next company for deployment to Darfur. This will be the final iteration of training which has delivered a core of instructors at the Gambian training school capable of preparing the GAF for deployment on basic peace support operations.

We do not have a British Military Advisory and Training Team (BMATT) in the Gambia. However, since 2006 the Royal Gibraltar Regiment has provided twice yearly short-term training teams (STTT) to help the Gambian Armed Forces (GAF) prepare for deployment to the African Union-United Nations Mission in Darfur (UNAMID).

The nature of the training that the Gibraltar Regiment provides has changed over the past 18 months from directly training the Gambian contingent to the delivery of support to the Gambian training school and train-the-trainer activity with the Gambian instructors. A team consisting of four regular Gibraltar Regiment personnel and a Royal Navy doctor will conduct the next iteration of training in March 2013, delivering train-the-trainer activity and concurrently helping the Gambian staff to prepare the next company for deployment to Darfur. This will be the final iteration of training which has delivered a core of instructors at the Gambian training school capable of preparing the GAF for deployment on basic peace support operations.