Julie Cooper – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julie Cooper on 2016-01-21.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many British servicemen are serving in (a) Iraq and (b) Afghanistan.

Penny Mordaunt

As of 22 January 2016, there were 287 British Service personnel serving in Iraq as part of Operation SHADER. This includes UK training teams providing training to the Iraq Security Forces and Kurdish Security Forces and UK support to various Coalition headquarters. Routine movements and minor changes in requirements mean that this number will vary over time.

For Afghanistan, I refer the hon. Member to the reply given by my noble Friend, the Minister of State in the House of Lords, the Rt Hon Earl Howe PC to the noble Lord, Lord Moonie, in the House of Lords to Question HL5150.