To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many instances of damage to the axles of each type of armoured vehicles have been recorded by his Department in (a) Iraq and (b) Afghanistan in each year since 2006. (280823)

The information requested is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what estimate he has made of the cost of replacing assets lost, damaged or prematurely worn out by the conflicts in (a) Iraq and (b) Afghanistan in each of the next five years. (280827)

For Iraq, work is ongoing to ascertain the final impairment costs of fighting equipment deployed in Iraq, but our previous estimates of the cost of recuperation of assets lost, damaged or prematurely worn out in operations in Iraq is around £300 million. The figure will remain under review and excludes the costs of replenishing munitions.

We are not in a position to accurately predict the forward level of recuperation necessary for the ongoing operation in Afghanistan. These will be dependent on a number of factors, including the size and type of the force in theatre and the operational tempo at the time. In Afghanistan recuperation for equipment and assets is carried out through a program of rolling-recuperation, for financial year 2008-09 costs were in the order of £150 million.