§ Mr. Viggersasked the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement on the type 22 frigate building programme.
§ Mr. Ian StewartI am pleased to be able to announce that we propose to procure two further type 22 frigates of batch III design. One of these is the fourth Falklands replacement, of which my right hon. Friend the Member for St. Ives (Sir J. Nott) gave notice on 14 December 1982. —[Vol 33, c. 130.] The second frigate is additional to those already announced in our naval programme. We will be inviting competitive tenders for these two ships during the summer.