An interesting question from the latest batch of Parliamentary Written Questions about the defence costs of the Falkland Islands, Gibraltar and Cyprus

The Question

Jim Murphy (East Renfrewshire, Labour)

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how much his Department spent on programmes or projects related to (a) Anguilla, (b) Bermuda (c) British Antarctic Territory, (d) British Indian Ocean Territory, (e) British Virgin Islands, (f) Cayman Islands, (g) Falkland Islands, (h) Gibraltar, (i) Montserrat, (j) Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie and Oeno Islands, (k) St Helena and St Helena Dependencies (Ascension and Tristan da Cunha), (l) South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands, (m) the Sovereign Base areas of Akritiri and Dhekelia and (n) the Turks and Caicos Islands in each of the last three years.

The Answer

Andrew Robathan (South Leicestershire, Conservative)

Costs shown in the following table reflect Ministry of Defence (MOD)’s commitment and responsibility for defence and security of the UK’s Overseas Territories as a standing military task and are rounded to the nearest £ million.

£ million

Financial year

UK’s Overseas Territories    2010-11         2011-12         2012-13

Anguilla          0          0          0

Bermuda        0          0          0

British Antarctic Territory    0          0          0

British Indian Ocean Territory        2          3          2

British Virgin Islands            0          0          0

Cayman Islands         0          0          0

Falkland Islands including (Ascension Island)(1)            95       68       67

Gibraltar         58       58       53

Montserrat     0          0          0

Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie and Oeno Islands        0          0          0

St Helena and St Helena Dependencies (Tristan da Cunha)       0          0          0

South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands          0          0          0

Akrotiri and Dhekelia(2)      227     208     188

Turks and Caicos Islands     0          0          0

(1 )Figures for Falkland Islands include the costs associated with Ascension Island as these figures cannot be broken down further without incurring disproportionate cost. These figures do not include the costs associated with St Helena or Tristan da Cunha (of which there are none). (2) Figures for Akrotiri and Dhekelia include all MOD sites in British Forces Cyprus as these cannot be broken down further without incurring disproportionate cost.

These costs represent the Joint Forces Command Top Level Budget from 2012-13 and the Chief of Joint Operations Top Level Budget prior to this period. It also includes Defence Infrastructure Organisation costs incurred for these locations

For more on this story go to:

http://www.thinkdefence.co.uk/2013/04/falkland-islands-gibraltar-and-cyprus-defence-costs/