§ Mr. GrayTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence when the last refit of HMS Nottingham was; how long she has been deployed on her current deployment; what task she is carrying out; and if he will make a statement. [68771]
§ Mr. IngramHMS Nottingham's last refit began in August 1999 and she returned to the Fleet in February 2001 following sea trials.
HMS Nottingham deployed from Portsmouth on 18 March 2002 and was scheduled to return to the United Kingdom on 6 December 2002. She deployed for duties as the Five Power Defence Arrangements (FPDA) ship but was subsequently assigned to Operation ORACLE in support of the fight against terrorism and was being held at notice for this purpose while deployed to the Asia Pacific to honour our commitments to the FPDA. The main focus of this deployment was to have been participation in the FPDA Exercise STARDEX in September with other FPDA partners (Australia, Malaysia, New Zealand and Singapore). HMS Nottingham was also scheduled to undertake a series of visits in support of Defence Diplomacy, wider security objectives, and Defence Export Services and United Kingdom industry initiatives. Her immediate programme will no longer proceed. The impact on Fleet programming is being assessed.