Armed Forces: Northern Ireland Sammy Wilson To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how much it has cost his Department to maintain the Army in Northern Ireland in each year since 1979. Bill Rammell Information is not held back to 1979. It is possible to provide data from the point at which General Officer Commanding Northern Ireland was allocated his own budget to manage. Changes in MOD accounting methodologies over time make year on year comparisons difficult. The figures in the first table are the cash outturn for the General Officer Commanding Northern Ireland Top Level Budget which was first created in 1991-92. --------------------- | |£ million| --------------------- |1991-92 |355 | --------------------- |1992-93 |436 | --------------------- |1993-94 |489 | --------------------- |1994-95 |510 | --------------------- |1995-96 |475 | --------------------- |1996-97 |494 | --------------------- |1997-98 |508 | --------------------- |1998-99 |509 | --------------------- |1999-2000|528 | --------------------- |2000-01 |535 | --------------------- The second table shows outturn figures for the same Top Level Budget for financial years 2001-02 to 2005-06. In 2001-02 resource accounting was introduced in the MOD. The practice of the time was to include cost of capital charges and depreciation in the final outturn figures for Top Level Budgets. ------------------- | |£ million| ------------------- |2001-02|614 | ------------------- |2002-03|718 | ------------------- |2003-04|653 | ------------------- |2004-05|626 | ------------------- |2005-06|580 | ------------------- In 2006-07 cost of capital and depreciation charges were removed from Top Level Budget accounts. The following figures therefore reflect cash outturn only. ------------------- | |£ million| ------------------- |2006-07|389 | ------------------- |2007-08|232 | ------------------- |2008-09|131 | ------------------- |2009-10|114 | -------------------