To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many members of the Stabilisation Unit are working in Afghanistan.

holding answer 15 July 2008

The Department for International Development, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Ministry of Defence agreed in June that the unit should take on responsibility for recruiting, training and deploying all civilians in delivery roles in the Helmand Integrated Civilian/Military Mission (formerly the Helmand provincial reconstruction team—PRT) except the head and one of the deputies. This currently represents 37 of the 55 civilian posts. Of these, 22 are filled: six by core staff from the unit and 16 on contract. The remaining 15 posts have only recently been established and are under recruitment. The unit also provides a contracted civilian expert to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation-led International Security Assistance Force's Regional Command (South) headquarters in Kandahar.