§ Commander Courtneyasked the Secretary of State for Defence if he will state the present composition of the Shipping Defence Advisory Committee; how many times this committee has met over the last two years; and whether he will make its report available for the information of hon. Members.
§ Mr. HayThe Shipping Defence Advisory Committee is under the Chairmanship of the Vice Chief of Naval Staff and is composed of representatives of the Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Transport, the Chamber of Shipping of the United Kingdom, the Shipbuilding Conference and Lloyd's. As has been the practice for some time, the Committee has met once in each of the last two years. I regret to say that I cannot depart from the usual practice of not disclosing proceedings of standing committees dealing with confidential business.