Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, pursuant to the contribution by the Minister of State for the Armed Forces on 20 October 2014, Official Report, column 66, on troop deployment: West Africa, on how many previous occasions her Department has funded support from the armed forces for humanitarian efforts; and whether it is her policy that such support will continue to be so funded in future.

MoD personnel are performing an invaluable role in the UK response to the Ebola crisis, working alongside DFID and NGO staff. All deployments are consistent with the Oslo Guidelines which define how military assets can be used for humanitarian purposes.

MoD and DFID have worked together in this way in Haiti, Chile and Indonesia, cyclones in Burma and the Philippines, flooding in Pakistan, the conflict in Iraq and the current Ebola outbreak in West Africa.