Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to use Overseas Patrol Squadron vessels to monitor hostile activity in the UK's fisheries and against vulnerable undersea assets in regions such as the North Sea.

The Ministry of Defence constantly monitors activity within UK waters and its Economic Exclusion Zone to counter and deter detected threats.

The Royal Navy's Batch 1 Offshore Patrol Vessels, of the Overseas Patrol Squadron, are frequently used on a high readiness basis in UK waters to undertake domestic security tasks, including escorting foreign warships through UK waters. This is in addition to the Fleet Ready Escort and other persistently available Royal Navy platforms.

The Government takes the security and resilience of undersea infrastructure, including cables, interconnectors, and pipelines, very seriously. These are critical to our national infrastructure, and we monitor the full range of threats and risks.