Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of enhancing River-Class Offshore Patrol Vessels to protect Critical National Infrastructure in the North Sea and environs.

The Royal Navy constantly assess the optimal mix of platforms and capabilities required to deliver its outputs, including Homeland defence and underwater and seabed infrastructure protection. The Royal Navy's Offshore Patrol Vessels safeguard our territorial waters, protect fishing stocks and perform constabulary duties both in UK waters and overseas. They are not currently assessed as the optimal means of protecting our underwater and seabed infrastructure, but we keep this under constant review.

The Government have accelerated the acquisition of two Multi-Role Ocean Surveillance ships in order to protect Critical National Infrastructure such as subsea cables and pipelines.