Des Browne
As announced by the then Secretary of State for Defence my right hon. Friend the Member for Airdrie and Shotts (John Reid) on 26 January 2006, Official Report, column 1529, the Helmand Task Force is planned to be a three year deployment. It is impossible to predict exactly how long there will be a UK military presence of somekind, as part of wider international support to the Government of Afghanistan, beyond that period.