Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask Her Majesty's Government how much they have spent on (1) directly employed cooks, and (2) outside contractors, to cater for British Army soldiers each year for the past five years.

Due to the complexities of the contracts system and the way in which overseas provision is made, the department is unfortunately unable to provide the level of detail which has been requested.

(1) While the Army has trained chefs within the Royal Logistics Corps (RLC), the number of which has been provided in response to question HL7457, it does not directly employ external cooks.

There are approximately 48 military chefs and 12 x Locally Employed Civilians deployed within the Permanent Joint Operating Bases to provide catering. However, as they are employed within combined messing facilities, we are unable to a provide a specific breakout for the Army element.

(2) The majority of facilities management contracts, which include catering, are Defence level contracts, therefore we are unable to break out specific Army related costs.