Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether he plans to forward deploy a Devonport or Portsmouth-based Type 23 frigate to the Gulf.
The plan to procure a first batch of five new Type 31e Frigates has not been postponed; we want the first ship to enter service by the end of 2023. All five ships are planned to be delivered by the end of 2028.
Although work continues on the forward deployment of a Type 23 Frigate to the Gulf, we do not discuss the future operations of our ships. These considerations will be unaffected by the Type 31e procurement process.