Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will list the age of each ship in the Strategic Sealift contract between his Department and Foreland Shipping Limited; and what plans he has to order new tonnage to replace those vessels.

The four Point Class vessels range between 19 and 20 years old having been built between 2001 and 2002. As part of the current PFI agreement, there is no contractual requirement for FSL to provide the Ministry of Defence (MOD) with any sealift capacity over and above the four Point Class vessels. Any additional MOD requirements would need to be met in the short term through commercial charters.