§ Mrs. Bainasked the Secretary of State for Defence what orders his Department is likely to place in the next year for vessels of similar capacity to the Type 22 frigate; and what proportion of these orders is likely to go to Yarrow Ltd.
§ Dr. GilbertDetails of the naval construction programme, including that for the Type 22 frigate, will be given in the Defence White Paper, which will be published at the end of this month. I cannot at this stage say which firm will get which orders. Nevertheless, it remains our policy to concentrate orders on the three major warship builders, of which Yarrows is one.