Fears UK Is Paying Taliban Compensation Claims

MPs are investigating whether the Taliban could be claiming compensation from UK taxpayers under human rights legislation, Sky News has learned.

A Ministry of Defence claims report for 2012-13 observes: "There is recent anecdotal evidence that a number of claimants are inflating or inventing claims.

"Claims are also being made a number of years after the supposed event when effective investigations are all but impossible."

Figures obtained by Sky News show the MoD paid out almost £24m in compensation to civilians in the UK and abroad last year compared with £9m in 2012 and £4.4m in 2011.

Many of last year's claims were made by Iraqi nationals, the data shows.

Conservative MP Julian Brazier, a member of the defence select committee which is investigating the claims, told Sky News: "The Taliban themselves who as the enemy will obviously look at any crack they can find in the system to have a go at our guys.

Julian Brazier says the claims will be investigated

"There are these claims out there, some of them pretty spurious but deeply worrying to our military commanders and indeed to the soldiers concerned on some occasions."

The concern within the MoD is that a perceived readiness to pay out quickly in order to calm a situation has encouraged Afghans to try their hand at making fraudulent or inflated claims.

Tom Tugendhat, a former adviser to chief of defence staff General Sir David Richards and ex-governor of Musa Qala in Helmand Province, has experience of having dealt with compensation claims.

He told Sky News it can be difficult to establish the truth, saying: "The problem is that when you get into urban areas it becomes more complicated.

"If, for example, there has been an accident and a vehicle has run over a sheep, clearly the compensation that the British Government will offer is real and the competition for who will get it in some areas can be quite severe.

"Now at times like that, could it have gone to people who weren't entitled? Yes, it certainly could."

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