§ Captain Kerbyasked the Civil Lord of the Admiralty what plans he has for commissioning the fast minelayer H.M.S. "Ariadne" and the destroyer H.M.S. "Matapan," bearing in mind that the former has not been in commission since the end of the war, and the latter has seen no service since her trials 13 years ago, and in view of the fact that other ships of similar type are in active commission.
§ Mr. C. Ian Orr-EwingBoth these ships are at short notice in operational reserve to replace or reinforce units of the operational Fleet. Ships are not rotated unnecessarily between the operational and reserve Fleets because it would be wasteful to do so.
§ Captain Kerbyasked the Civil Lord of the Admiralty what has been the cost of construction and reconstruction to a new design of H.M. cruiser "Lion" since her laying down in 1941 to date.
§ Mr. C. Ian Orr-EwingH.M.S. "Lion" is still building at Messrs. Swan Hunter and Wigham Richardson Ltd.'s yard, Wallsend-on-Tyne, and I cannot give her building cost before she is finally accepted into service.
§ Captain Kerbyasked the Civil Lord of the Admiralty (1) why, in the Explanatory Statement to the 1959–60 Navy Estimates, an escort maintenance ship was shown as being in commission, whilst in the 1960–61 Explanatory Statement the first ship of this type, H.M.S. "Hartland Point", is shown as com- 176W missioning during the current financial year;
(2) What is the approximate cost of modernising H.M.S. "Hartland Point"; and why there has been so much delay in her completion.
§ Mr. C. Ian Orr-EwingThe approximate cost of modernising H.M.S. "Hartland Point" is £2.5 million. This is a prototype modernisation of a large ship and we are incorporating modifications which could not be foreseen when work started. We have also had on occasions to switch some effort to other commitments of even higher operational priority. For these reasons we have not been able to meet the original forecast that she would join the Fleet in 1959–60.
§ Captain Kerbyasked the Civil Lord of the Admiralty, in view of the fact that H.M.S. "Triumph" is still listed as an aircraft carrier in the explanatory statement to the Estimates for the current year, to what extent work on the reconstruction of this ship for conversion from an aircraft carrier to a heavy repair ship has been suspended.
§ Mr. C. Ian Orr-EwingH.M.S. "Triumph" is an aircraft carrier undergoing conversion and she is shown in this section in my noble Friend's Explanatory Statement. Work on her has not been suspended.