Letter from the Ministry of Defence Liaison
Officer to the Clerk of the Committee
Gift of Operational Ration Packs (ORPs) to
the USA
Thank you for your letter of 14 February in
which you seek additional information following receipt of our
Departmental Minute of 6 February, concerning the gifting of ORPs
to the Government of the USA. [1]
The response to your specific questions are
detailed below.
1. Why did it take the Department five months
to inform the House of this gift?
Given the unusual nature of this transaction,
there was some debate within the MoD and with HM Treasury on how
best to account for the ORPs that MoD provided to the US to assist
with the Hurricane Katrina relief effort. The conclusion reached
was to gift the ORPs, hence the Departmental Minute submitted
on 6 February, and to write off the transport costs in the Department's
2005-06 accounts.
2. What was the total cost of the gift, airlift
costs included?
The cost of providing the ORPs to the Government
of the USA was £5,130,971, of which £3,114,845 represented
the value of the ORPs gifted and £2,016,126 was the cost
of airlift.
3. What are the Department's observations
on media reports that delivery of the packs was delayed, once
they had arrived in the USA, because of US Department of Agriculture
objections to EU products? Does the Department have any information
on whether, and how, the packs were eventually used?
At the specific and urgent request of the US
authorities, the MoD delivered around 475,000 ORPs between 5-7
September 2005. The US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
then began to distribute the ration packs to the disaster area.
This process was stopped on 8 September when the US Department
of Agriculture realised that the ORPs did not comply with their
regulations concerning the import of processed meat, and a ban
on the import of ruminant products from Europe, including the
UK, introduced after the BSE crisis. The UK was not aware that
there was a danger of the packs being impounded until after they
had been delivered and, once informed of the problem the UK stopped
any further deliveries.
The remaining ration packs, approximately 330,000,
were initially impounded in Arkansas. However, the Department
understands that the US Authorities have been in touch with various
international and non-governmental organisations on ways to make
use of the ration packs outside the US. A number have already
been distributed, to NGOs for distribution to populations in need
and to the OSCE for use in Georgia; we understand that the US
authorities expect all the ORPs to be distributed this way.
I hope that this provides you with all the information
you need.
6 March 2006
1 Note: See Ev 31
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