Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 21 June 2021 to Question 16977 on United Nations: Peacekeeping Operations and the reference in that Answer to the deployment of Military Staff Officers to seven UN Peacekeeping missions, what costs were incurred by the UK Government for that deployment; and how many personnel made up that deployment.
Answered by James Heappey
In answering the hon. Member's Question 16977, I wrongly referred to deployment of staff officers on seven UN missions. In fact, UK staff officers are deployed on six missions. I apologise for this error.
In the Financial Year (FY) 2019-20, the UK deployed personnel into 20 Military Staff Officer roles in UN Peacekeeping and Special Political Mission Headquarters across five missions at a cost of £224 000.
The sixth mission, Operation TOSCA in Cyprus, includes a deployment of 12 individual Military Staff Officers and a troop contingent of around 250 personnel, which in total cost the UK £18.1 million, in FY 2019-20. We cannot accurately separate the staff costs for the wider deployment.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what proportion of military spending is spent on UK contributions to UN peacekeeping operations.
Answered by James Heappey
In the financial year 2019-20, the UK expenditure on Defence's operational contributions to UN Peacekeeping was £29.3million, which equates to 6.2% of total expenditure on operations. This includes the deployment of contingent troops to Cyprus and Somalia, residual costs from the drawdown in South Sudan, net additional costs to prepare for the deployment to Mali, and the deployment of individual Military Staff Officers to seven UN Peacekeeping missions in total.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether the joint military manoeuvres with the USA, Italy, UK, Netherlands, Canada, Brazil, Tunisia, Morocco and Senegal will take place in (a) Morocco or (b) occupied Western Sahara.
Answered by James Heappey
The Ministry of Defence can confirm that no UK personnel participating in Exercise AFRICAN LION will be conducting training in Western Sahara. The UK regards the status of Western Sahara as undetermined.