Afghanistan

Nick Smith Excerpts

Wednesday 19th December 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hammond]

This is a perennial challenge in any country where narcotics cultivation is a core part of the economy—to develop sustainable alternative forms of economic activity that provide a livelihood for peasant farmers which can compete with the returns available from narcotics. That is a big challenge for the Afghan Government. We are putting a lot of investment into helping them with that challenge and counter-narcotics will be a continuing strand of our involvement with Afghanistan well beyond the end of our combat operations in 2014.

[Nick Smith (Blaenau Gwent) (Lab)]

May I press the Secretary of State to say whether Afghanistan campaign returners will be subject to compulsory redundancy?