To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what assistance has been provided by her Department in protecting the antiquities of Mesopotamia. [129564]

Officials from my Department were among the first civilians sent to Iraq after the war. They worked within the Coalition Provisional Authority to re-establish the Iraqi Culture Ministry. They also worked on clarifying numbers of items missing from the Iraq museum and on implementing measures, to help prevent on-going looting from archaeological sites.We have also implemented UNSCR 1483 in reaction to the prohibition of the import of trade in unlawfully removed Iraq cultural property.