Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 29 June 2020 to Question 67536 on Ministry of Defence: Iraq Detainees, of the 1,000 civil claims in connection with operations in Iraq, how many cases were brought after (a) three and (b) six years, when calculated from the date the claim was issued, rather than the date the claim was serviced.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave him on 6 July 2020 to Question 67536.

We are unable to provide a complete response to this question, as we have not yet finished calculating the time elapsed between the date of the alleged incident and the date on which the claim was either issued or served in all cases. However, we can say that at least 500 were brought more than six years after the alleged incident and would have been caught by the longstop introduced in the Overseas Operations (Service Personnel & Veterans) Bill; at least 250 were brought within three to six years and would have been subject to the Courts discretion; and at least 40 were brought within three years of the alleged incident.