Commons Sense

House of Commons · Ministers' Questions

UK Territorial Waters

Monday 2 November 2020 · 3 questions

Summarised by AI from the official record, so it can contain mistakes.

Read the full transcript on Parliament.uk

At a glance

Answered 0 Partly answered 2 Not answered 0

Key points

  • The protection of UK territorial waters is a cross-Government responsibility.
  • The Ministry of Defence provides a multi-layered capability to deter incursions using surface ships, submarines, and maritime patrol aircraft.
  • The Scottish Government works with agencies including the Ministry of Defence for fisheries protection and border security.

Topics (select to filter)

Questions & Answers

Q1 Alan Brown SNP
Defence
Context

The MP is concerned about the protection of UK territorial waters, specifically mentioning the north Atlantic and North Sea.

Question

What recent steps has his Department taken to protect UK territorial waters in the (a) north Atlantic and (b) North sea?

Answer from Ben Wallace

The protection of UK territorial waters is a cross-Government responsibility. The Ministry of Defence contributes by providing a multi-layered capability to deter incursions into territorial waters, including surface ships and submarines based on the Clyde and Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft based at RAF Lossiemouth.

Partly answered

Not addressed: Specific steps in the North Atlantic and North Sea were not detailed.

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Q2 Allan Dorans
Defence Scotland
Context

The MP is concerned about the readiness of UK armed forces to handle various threats, including people and drug trafficking and foreign incursions into territorial waters.

Question

Can the Secretary of State tell us his plans to ensure that our armed forces can cope with multiple tasks, including combating people and drug trafficking, and foreign incursion into our territorial waters and airspace? Will they specifically live up to the Government's promise to establish a frigate factory on the Clyde?

Answer from Ben Wallace

Firstly, we cope with securing our borders through burden sharing and working across agencies including Scottish Government for fisheries protection. On a frigate factory, the last two major shipbuilding contracts for defence have been placed in Scotland: Type 26 on the Clyde and Type 31 at Rosyth.

Partly answered

Not addressed: Details about handling threats were not provided, only general principles.

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Q3 Alan Brown SNP
Defence Scotland
Context

The MP is concerned about the lack of surface warships in Scottish waters despite them comprising over 60% of UK waters.

Question

Scottish waters comprise over 60% of the UK's waters, yet we have no surface warships. In fact, the most northerly surface warship base is located at the south coast of England, which means that scrambling a fleet ready escort takes over 24 hours to reach Scottish waters. Given that there are almost monthly transgressions into Scottish waters and we need regular patrols, why is the Rosyth base being scrapped?

Answer from Ben Wallace

The hon. Gentleman's claim could have some credibility if his party was not busy trying to scrap the HM submarine base on the Clyde and to push the submarines out of Scotland.

Not addressed: Specific reason for scrapping Rosyth base was not addressed.

How: Redirecting Criticism Towards Opposition

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