Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Goldie on 10 July (HL8794), whether the National Maritime Information Centre records incursions into the UK's territorial seas and Exclusive Economic Zone by ships of the Russian Main Directorate of Deep-Sea Research; and if so, how many have been made during the past two years.

The National Maritime Information Centre is a part of the Joint Maritime Security Centre (JMSC). JMSC does not routinely record and archive the number of entries by foreign vessels into the UK's Exclusive Economic Zone. The number of instances JMSC utilises aviation assets to identify specific Vessels of Interest is, however, recorded. In the last two years, JMSC has flown 21 flights to identify 18 Russian vessels.