This report presents the evidence we have obtained from the Ministry of Defence (MoD) during our scrutiny of the Main Supply Estimates 2007-08.

We have identified no issues which require to be debated by the House of Commons before it is asked to agree to the Main Estimates, but we point out that the MoD's request for resources of £33.7 billion in the Main Estimates does not include the expected costs of military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and so greatly underestimates the total expected cost of the MoD's activities in 2007-08. Provision for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan exceeded £1.7 billion in 2006-07.

We argue that the MoD should include estimated costs of military operations in its Main Estimates, instead of waiting for the Supplementary Estimates as it does at present. We find it unacceptable that the MoD is incurring costs on military operations, without parliamentary approval and without even providing Parliament with an outline of the anticipated costs.

We present a breakdown of the MoD's planned conflict prevention activities in 2007-08, for which it is requesting £44 million in the Main Estimates.

We state that the costs of peacekeeping operations in the Balkans, for which provision is made in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office's estimate, are currently estimated to be £22.5 million in 2007-08.

We also highlight a number of changes in the MoD's Top Level Budget structure which are reflected in the Estimates.