§ Mr. Churchillasked the Secretary of State for Defence whether it remains the policy of Her Majesty's Government not to remove No. 203 Nimrod Reconnaissance Squadron from the Mediterranean before 1979.
§ Mr. WellbelovedThe Government announced in the 1975 Defence White Paper their decision to withdraw the Nimrod force from the Mediterranean between 1977 and 1979. We have since done more detailed planning and, as I informed the hon. Member for Tyne-mouth (Mr. Trotter) in March this year—[Vol. 928, c.433]—the Malta Nimrod Squadron will in fact be disbanded and the aircraft returned to the United Kingdom in the first quarter of 1978.