Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what (a) direct and (b) other financial support his Department provides to the Afghan Mines Protection Force and (b) local police.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) provides policing assistance to Afghanistan via its £70m per annum contribution to the Afghan National Defence and Security Forces (ANDSF), which supports the payment of Afghan National Police salaries, via the Law and Order Trust Fund for Afghanistan (LOTFA), administered by the UN Development Programme (UNDP). The FCO does not fund the Afghan Local Police.

The UK also deploys security advisers to the Ministry of Interior, NATO, and EUPOL, the EU’s policing mission in Afghanistan. They do not provide support to the Afghan Local Police.

The Department for International Development’s separate financial support to policing is aimed at capacity-building the Ministry of Interior and developing the Afghan National Police. The Afghan Public Protection Force is not a recipient of this support.