House of Lords written question – answered at on 9 June 2010.
Lord Bew
Crossbench
To ask Her Majesty's Government what was the cost of Operation Banner.
Lord Astor of Hever
Lord in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip), The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence
Information dating back to 1969, when Operation Banner started, has not been retained. It is possible to provide data from the point at which General Officer Commanding Northern Ireland was allocated his own budget to manage. Changes in Ministry of Defence accounting methodologies over time make year-on-year comparisons difficult.
The figures in the first table are the cash outturn for the General Officer Commanding Northern Ireland top level budget which was first created in 1991-92.
| Year | 1991-92 | 1992-93 | 1993-94 | 1994-95 | 1995-96 | 1996-97 | 1997-98 | 1998-99 | 1999-00 | 2000-01 |
| £ Million | 355 | 436 | 489 | 510 | 475 | 494 | 508 | 509 | 528 | 535 |
The second table shows outturn figures for the same top level budget for financial years 2001-02 to 2005-06. In 2001-02 resource accounting was introduced in the Ministry of Defence. The practice of the time was to include cost of capital charges and depreciation in the final outturn figures for top level budgets.
| Year | 2001-02 | 2002-03 | 2003-04 | 2004-05 | 2005-06 |
| £ Million | 614 | 718 | 653 | 626 | 580 |
In 2006-07 cost of capital and depreciation charges were removed from top level budget accounts. The following figures therefore reflect cash outturn only.
| Year | 2006-07 | 2007-08 | 2008-09 | 2009-10 |
| £ Million | 389 | 232 | 131 | 114 |
Yes2 people think so
No5 people think not
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