Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment has been made of the adequacy of HMS Protector.

The Defence Investment Plan includes provision to replace HMS Protector with a more modern vessel variant, maintaining the United Kingdom’s essential presence and supporting Government activities in the Arctic and around the British Antarctic Territory. Work is ongoing to assess the requirement and potential options for delivering the future ice patrol capability, under Project Shackleton. Further detail will be released in due course.

As my hon. Friend will know, we inherited a plan to operate HMS Protector into the late 2030s, but no plan to replace the vessel. We assessed that this was not a sustainable approach and therefore made provision in the Defence Investment Plan to replace our ice-breaking capability.