Asked by: Lord Austin of Dudley (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of providing a British field hospital for Kurdish Peshmerga; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt
The UK keeps its contribution to the Global Counter-Daesh Coalition in Iraq (including the Kurdish region) under review with wider Coalition partners, but has no plans to deploy a field hospital to the region. Any such deployment would need to be carefully balanced against medical commitments to current and future planned operations.
Asked by: Lord Austin of Dudley (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 3 February 2016 to Question 25590, whether his Department has received a request from the Kurdistan Regional Government for replacement ammunition rounds for British-gifted heavy machine guns; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt
The Kurdish Regional Government has made a number of recent requests to Her Majesty's Government for further assistance, including for ammunition. These requests are currently under consideration and as set out in my Answer of 3 February 2016 to Question 25590. Should a decision be taken that we can provide further assistance, this would be notified to Parliament in the normal way.
Asked by: Lord Austin of Dudley (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether his Department has received a request from the Kurdistan regional government for replacement ammunition rounds for British-gifted heavy machine guns; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt
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.