Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department is taking to enhance its maritime surveillance capabilities, in the context of recent submarine activity in British waters.

Protecting the UK and responding to threats in our territorial waters is a critical component of the Defence mission to protect the nation, and we constantly monitor activity within UK waters to counter and deter threats.

The Royal Navy (RN) seeks to exploit and deploy new technologies alongside existing systems to enhance our ability to detect subsurface threats, with programmes seeking to rapidly adopt remote and autonomous anti-submarine sensors. The details of future capabilities are subject to consideration through the Strategic Defence Review.