Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government why the complete cost saving of using Ministry of Defence assets rather than equivalent private sector assets for humanitarian or other overseas aid operations cannot be allocated to the budget of the Department for International Development.

It is extremely difficult to make a direct cost comparison between military and private sector assets. In general however, in terms of capacity to deliver relief supplies, private commercial suppliers are considerably cheaper tonne for tonne than the armed forces, which is why DFID uses civil commercial options wherever possible and resorts to military assets only when necessary and as a matter of last resort, in line with the United Nations ‘Oslo’ Guidelines.