HC Deb 16 January 1986 vol 89 c641W
Mr. Dalyell

asked the Secretary of State for Defence whether it was on his authority that the Royal Navy has expressed to the official Broadsheet concern about the decline of British merchant shipping; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Stanley

The Government expressed their concern about the possible defence implications of the decline of the United Kingdom's merchant fleet continuing for several more years at the present rate in paragraph 459 of volume I of the "Statement on the Defence Estimates 1985" (Cmnd. 9430).

Broadsheet 85, which is published annually by the Royal Navy, reflects this concern.