Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether reports of RFA Fort Victoria being in "poor" condition in the Cammell Laird Shipyard mean that she is not immediately available to support an unplanned carrier group deployment assuming sufficient personnel can be found to man her.

RFA FORT VICTORIA is in a scheduled refit package to prepare her for future service. Her upkeep will enable her to fulfil future operations.

All Royal Navy (RN) ships rotate through planned operating cycles and this results in individual ships being at various levels of readiness at any one time in accordance with long-term operating schedules and operational needs; they remain in service during these periods but may not be deployable.

It is our policy not to disclosure the fine details of forward availability forecasts of individual ships as this would, or would be likely to prejudice the capability, effectiveness or security of the Armed Forces. The RN does publish annual figures for readiness days, the first of which was released in November 2023.