To ask the Secretary of State for Defence

(1) what his Department's expenditure outturn, excluding the cost of operations, was in each year from 1992-93 to 2000-01;

(2) what his Department's expenditure outturn, excluding the cost of operations and the security and intelligence services, was in each year from 1979-80 to 1991-92;

(3) what in near cash terms the (a) resource and (b) capital outturn was for operating in (i) Afghanistan, (ii) Iraq and (iii) the Balkans in each year from 2001-02 to 2004-05.

MOD identifies the costs of operations in terms of the net additional costs it has incurred. The costs that the Department would have incurred regardless of the operation taking place, such as wages and salaries, are not included. Savings on activities that have not occurred because of the operation—training exercises for example—are taken into account in arriving at the net figures.

The annual audited near cash figures (excluding indirect resource costs) for the costs of operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Balkans for the years 2002-03 to 2004-05 were as follows:

Although resource accounts were published for 2001-02, MOD does not have a full breakdown of operational costs for that year. However, the total operational costs were as follows:

The Department did not produce full accounts until the introduction of resource accounting and budgeting (RAB) for the financial year 2001-02. Prior to this financial year, the Department's outturn was reported in the end of year Appropriations Accounts and Estimates reports, copies of which can be found in the Library of the House. Appropriations Accounts do not, however, separately identify the cost of operations or the costs of the security and intelligence services and this information is not held centrally and would be provided only at disproportionate cost.