To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs pursuant to the Prime Minister’s response to the hon. Member for Islington, North (Jeremy Corbyn) following his Oral Statement on Iraq on 8 October 2007, Official Report, column 33, what the evidential basis was for not accepting the figure quoted by the hon. Member on the number of Iraqi civilian deaths since the 2003 invasion; and what his estimate is of the number of such deaths. (159486)

The Government do not collate figures for civilian casualties in Iraq. The Government of Iraq are best placed to monitor the numbers of Iraqi civilian casualties. We continue to believe that there are no comprehensive or reliable figures for deaths since March 2003.