HC Deb 26 April 1977 vol 930 cc1013-4
10. Mr. Tebbit

asked the Secretary of State for Defence what estimate he has made of the number of hours to be flown by maritime reconnaissance aircraft on fishery protection duties.

Mr. Wellbeloved

As agreed with the Fisheries Departments, we are currently flying about 180 hours a month. I expect this level of activity to continue.

Mr. Tebbit

Are any limits imposed on the number of hours which may be flown on fishery protection duties by the need to conserve the airframe life of Nimrod for its main purpose into the end of the century? Does the Minister feel that there is a need for a less expensive aircraft for fishery protection duties?

Mr. Wellbeloved

The number of hours flown by the RAF with its Nimrod air craft is entirely determined by the requests we receive from the consumer Departments, the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and the Scottish Department of Agriculture. They asked for 180 hours, and we supply them. If they asked for an increase, we could supply it from the Nimrod force. The limitation on surveillance of the North Sea is not determined by the number of aircraft or the length of life of the aircraft. We are considering a number of possible means of carrying out surveillance of fishing fleets in the North Sea, but until the surveys are complete I cannot add anything more useful to the discussion than I have said to the hon. Member for Newbury (Mr. McNair-Wilson) in answer to previous Questions.

Mr. Goodhew

The Minister seems to have missed the whole point of the question asked by my hon. Friend the Member for Chingford (Mr. Tebbit), which is that aircraft in use have a limited life. Is not the hon. Gentleman aware that if the Nimrod aircraft are vital for surveillance in anti-submarine work—and from his answer he seemed not to be aware—the more he uses them for fishery protection the less he will have them for their proper use? Is he considering the use of other aircraft?

Mr. Wellbeloved

If the hon. Gentle man studies the situation with a little more care, he will observe that one of the reasons why the Nimrod aircraft was chosen for the role was that it can fulfil the fishery protection role and its long-range maritime reconnaissance role without any detriment to either task. That is one of the prime reasons why we are using Nimrod in preference to any other aircraft.