§ Mr. Trotterasked the Secretary of State for Defence how many vessels and of which category are now regularly engaged on fishery protection patrols in the North Sea and around the coast of the United Kingdom; how many new vessels and of what types are being constructed for this task; and to what extent the number of fishery protection vessels in service at any one time will be increased as a result of the new construction.
§ Mr. DuffyAt present the Royal Navy has 11 ships regularly engaged in fishery protection patrols around the United Kingdom. The ships consist of eight mine countermeasures vessels, two Bird class patrol vessels and one fast patrol 487W boat. In addition the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries for Scotland has five fishery protection vessels in service.
Five new Royal Navy ships of the Island class were ordered in 1975 for future offshore tasks including fishery protection and the protection of oil and gas installations. The first, HMS "Jersey", has already been commissioned; the other four are under construction and are due to enter service during 1977, thereby increasing to 16 the number of Her Majesty's ships in service and regularly engaged in fishery protection patrols.