Afghanistan: Opium

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what the total cost was of the poppy eradication programmes undertaken in Afghanistan by the UK in each year since 2001. (143747)

I refer my hon. Friend to the written answer I gave him on 2 November 2006, Official Report, columns 657-658W, and I submit the following updated table that includes the 2006-07 figures.

*£ million*
Financial year	Total Afghan counter narcotics spend	Eradication
2002-03	23 1	21.2
2003-04	31.3	1.3
2004-05	33.2	2.2
2005-06	¹92.3	5.7
2006-07	82.0	2.9
¹The published figure for 2005-06 was given as £92.8 million in the written answer on 2 November 2006. This was adjusted downwards in 2007, when full information on actual, as opposed to projected, spend became available.

Volume 461: debated on Thursday 21 June 2007