Somalia: Piracy

Debate between Lord Howell of Guildford and Lord Boyce

Wednesday 11th January 2012 Lords Chamber

[Lord Howell of Guildford]

My noble friend is quite right that this is a very serious situation spreading of course not only to the Gulf of Aden area, but out into the Indian Ocean and the west of Africa. He perhaps would accept that the statistics show—maybe because of diversion of shipping but for other reasons as well—that successful attacks fell dramatically last year. There were 127 attacks in 2010, 47 of which were successful, and by 2011 there were more attacks—150—but only 25 were successful. The success rate for the pirates in achieving their ugly objectives has been much reduced. Nevertheless, my noble friend is absolutely right that very firm action is required. The matter of UAVs is under consideration but there are difficulties, even for UAVs, in covering such an enormous area. We are talking about somewhere twice the size of Europe. On the question of vigorous action when these pirates are encountered, the Government believe that interim guidance is a strong first step, as initiated by my right honourable friend the Prime Minister, in his discussions on these matters in Australia a few months ago. The details laid down are definitely an advance in dealing with pirates in a most vigorous manner, and rightly so.

[Lord Boyce]

I welcome the Minister’s comment that the Royal Navy will be providing a ship to support the anti-piracy operations off Somalia. The Minister will also be aware that the Navy has been unable to meet its full-time commitments for a duty ship over the past few months. Noting such other contingencies coming up, such as the potential closure of the Hormuz Strait by Iran, will the Government now recognise that they have cut back too far on the size of the destroyer and frigate force?

[Lord Howell of Guildford]

My Lords, the noble and gallant Lord will not be surprised at my answer that these matters are kept under constant review. We need to deploy in the most effective manner the forces that our resources allow us to deploy, and we will continue to examine all needs and priorities in that light.