Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many deployments of UK military personnel have been on the basis of a UN resolution in the last five years; what the cost of those deployments has been; and what funds the UN has contributed towards the cost of those deployments.

The UN deploys peacekeepers on missions which hold a UN mandate; these are missions whereby the UN Security Council drafts a Resolution which contains a mandate authorising the UN itself to take action (unilaterally or with partners), usually through the Department of Peacekeeping Operations.

Over the past five years, UK military personnel have been deployed to four separate UN mandated peacekeeping missions: Cyprus (UNFICYP), Mali (MINUSMA), South Sudan (UNMISS) and the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUSCO).

The number of military personnel who have deployed on the various UN operations is set out below:

The cost of UN peacekeeping operations is $8.0 billion for Financial Year 2014-15 of which the UK Government provides an assessed contribution of 6.68% ($534 million or £341.8 million) to the UN.

Until late-2014, the UN reimbursed the country of origin with $1,101 per deployed soldier, per month (this has risen to $1,332 from July 2014). As an estimate, based on 300 personnel deployed, the UN has historically reimbursed the UK approximately £4 million per annum.

Additional costs associated with the specific deployment of UK troops on UN missions are met by the Conflict Pool. The information below shows the additional costs for UK military staff on UN Peacekeeping Operations:

The UK’s reimbursement from the UN is invested back into the Conflict Pool to bolster that fund.