Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment his department has made of the potential security implications for British citizens in Cyprus as a result of the delay in sending HMS Dragon to the region.

The Department continually assesses a wide range of potential threats to the UK and its citizens, including hostile activity by state actors. We do not comment on specific intelligence for security reasons.

The deployment of HMS Dragon is in addition to the considerable amount of capability positioned into RAF Akrotiri since January, including hundreds of Armed Forces personnel, radar, air defence missiles and F35s to defend our bases, people and interests.