Jim Cunningham – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2015-10-30.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what estimate his Department has made of the cost of UK military activity in Syria in the last 12 months.

Michael Fallon

The net additional cost of UK military activity in Syria is not separately identified from that of the broader countering ISIL activity in Iraq and Syria. The net additional cost of countering ISIL activity between August 2014 and 31 March 2015, was around £45 million, met from the Deployed Military Activity Pool (DMAP) and the HM Treasury Special Reserve. These details are published in the 2014-15 MOD Annual Report and Accounts.

An initial £45 million has been requested in 2015-16 to meet the net additional costs of airstrikes in Iraq and airborne intelligence gathering operations in Iraq and Syria.