To ask Her Majesty’s Government what was the cost of maintaining the defence attaché network in each of the financial years (1) 2009–10, (2) 2010–11, (3) 2011–12, and (4) 2012–13; and of these costs, what proportion is attributable to support for defence and security exports.

The Defence Attaché network is funded from the Defence budget. The costs for the years detailed were:

• 2009-2010—£36.260M• 2010-2011—£38.958M

• 2011-2012—£41.323M• 2012-2013—£41.092M

The Defence Sections in question each have one or more resident Defence Attaches, some of whom have responsibilities for other countries which have Non-Residential Accreditation (NRA) status. The figures above include costs associated with the NRAs.

The figures exclude operational costs (and until 2011-12 Iraq costs were operational) and training costs. The figures also exclude the USA, where the costs of the accredited attaches are subsumed in those of the larger British Defence Staff US. In 2012-13 the attaché costs were estimated at around £2.3 million.

There is no mechanism to break down the cost of attaché effort by “purpose of activity”. Attaché output in support of defence and security exports varies from country to country and over time.