13 Jul 10. EVIDENCE SESSION with the Secretary of State, Wednesday 21 July 2010, Grimond Room, Portcullis House.
Witnesses:
At 3.00 pm
* Rt Hon Liam Fox MP, Secretary of State for Defence
* Tom McKane, Director General for Strategy
* Mark Preston, Director Business Resilience
* Air Vice Marshal Andy Pullford, Assistant Chief of Defence Staff (Operations)
The purpose of the session will be to examine a number of key issues relating to: the Strategic Defence and Security Review, Defence Acquisition Reform, and UK operations in Afghanistan.
DEFENCE COMMITTEE APPOINTED
The House of Commons Defence Select Committee was appointed on Monday 12 July 2010. Committee Membership is as follows:
Rt Hon James Arbuthnot MP (Conservative, North East Hampshire) (Chair)
Mr Julian Brazier MP (Conservative, Canterbury)
Mr Jeffrey M. Donaldson MP (Democratic Unionist, Lagan Valley)
John Glen MP (Conservative, Salisbury)
Mr David Hamilton MP (Labour, Midlothian)
Mr Mike Hancock MP (Liberal Democrat, Portsmouth South)
Mr Adam Holloway MP (Conservative, Gravesham)
Mrs Madeleine Moon MP (Labour, Bridgend)
Alison Seabeck MP (Labour, Moor View)
Bob Stewart MP (Conservative, Beckenham)
Ms Gisela Stuart MP (Labour, Birmingham, Edgbaston)
John Woodcock MP (Lab/Co-op, Barrow and Furness)

House of Commons Hansard Written Answers for 14 July 2010

Armed Forces: Deployment

Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence in how many military
(a) conventional state on state and (b) counter insurgency conflicts British forces have been involved in the last 30 years. [5276]

Dr Fox: There is no standard definition of conflict, state conflict, or counter insurgency. Taking a reasonable interpretation of these terms, since 1980 UK forces have been involved in the following conflicts involving force against another state, some of them undertaken in distinct operational phases over time:
Falkland Islands; Bosnia; Kosovo; Iraq (twice). Operations of a counter
insurgency nature have been undertaken in Afghanistan, Kosovo, the Former
Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Sierra Leone, Vanuatu, and the follow on phases of the second Iraq conflict.
Operations that fall outside these definitions including peace keeping and peace support, UN observer missions, evacuation and humanitarian operations and military aid to the civil authorities. Details of individual defence operations and their purposes over the period in question can be found in the Defence Annual Report and Accounts, and its predecessor publications, which are all published documents and are placed in the Library of the House.

Jonathan Edwards: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence whether he has set a timetable for receiving contributions to the Strategic Defence and Security Review from (a) members of the public and (b) representative organisations.
[6743]

Mr Letwin: I have been asked to reply. Government have already begun engaging with key partners and representative organisations on the Strategic Defence and Security Review, and will be providing individual members of the armed forces and their families with the opportunity to contribute. I refer the hon. Member to the answer given by the noble Lord Taylor of Holbeach on 7 July 2010, Official Report, House of Lords. The Government expects to publish a National Security Strategy and the outcomes of the Strategic Defence and Security Review in the autumn, in coordination with the Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR). Contributions and ideas from members of the public and representative organisations and others are welcome at any time during this process.

Departmental ICT

Alun Cairns: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the original estimated cost was of the Defence Information Infrastructure project; and what his most recent estimate is of the cost of that project. [6998]

Peter Luff: The current estimate of the whole Defence Information Infrastructure (DII) Programme is aroun