§ Dr. Julian LewisTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will list the respects in which there has been an increase in the availability of Type 23 frigates since the completion of the 1998 Strategic Defence Review,520W referred to in the letter from the Minister of State for the Armed Forces to the hon. Member for Aldershot of 2 December. [86484]
§ Mr. IngramThe Type 23 Frigate was designed with the expectation of spending a high proportion of its operational time in the demanding and stressing environment of the North Atlantic. The nature of the threat has evolved with resultant changes to operational priorities and deployments, the consequence of which is that these ships spend less time in the North Atlantic. An opportunity has therefore arisen to extend the interval between major maintenance periods. Improved processes for the specification and management of equipment maintenance are also being introduced. The collective effect of these developments will be to increase the availability of Type 23 Frigate capability for operations.