13.1 | Resources

1. This Section addresses:

• the cost of the UK’s involvement in Iraq;

• the main sources of funding for the UK’s involvement, the different arrangements

for funding military operations and civilian activities, and how those

arrangements changed;

• the estimates of the cost of military operations and civilian activities that were

made before the invasion, and the extent to which those estimates influenced

key decisions;

• the imposition of controls over the MOD’s management of its resources by the

Treasury in September 2003;

• the allocations for civilian activities that were made before, during and after the

conflict; and

• how expenditure was scrutinised.

2. This Section does not address how departments used the resources available to

them. Specifically:

• The provision of military equipment is considered in Sections 6.3 and 14.

• The UK’s support for reconstruction is considered in Section 10.

• The UK’s support for Security Sector Reform is considered in Section 12.

3. The direct cost to the UK Government of its intervention in Iraq between the UK

financial years 2002/03 and 2009/10 was at least £9.2bn in cash terms1 (£11.83bn in

2016 prices).2 That comprised: