Mr. Edward Taylorasked the Minister of State for Defence how many vessels have been engaged directly or indirectly 207W in maintaining the Beira Patrol; and how many tons of oil they have used over the last annual period for which figures are available.
§ Mr. BuckIt is not the practice to give details of operational deployments. The way the Beira Patrol operates has varied to meet changing circumstances. In any event no valid attribution of fuel consumption can be made because the ships concerned would have been engaged on other duties had there been no requirement for them to carry out the Beira Patrol.