To ask the Secretary of State for Defence on how many occasions a foreign government has refused a request from his Department to transfer or give access to (a) technology and (b) software code used by UK forces in Afghanistan since 2001.

holding answer 23 November 2010

Foreign governments may on occasions provide access to technology and software only to their own forces, sometimes for a set period, for national security or foreign policy reasons or for allowing for their own exploitation of research and development.

The information requested is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost. However, if the information was available, I would withhold it as its disclosure would, or would be likely to prejudice the capability, effectiveness or security of the armed forces.