Andrew Rosindell – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Rosindell on 2014-04-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment he has made of readiness to defend its Overseas Territories in the event of attack.

Mr Mark Francois

The Ministry of Defence (MOD) regularly consults with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and other Government Departments and intelligence agencies, as well as our allies and partners, constantly to review or identify potential threats to UK Overseas Territories (UKOTs). In the first instance the MOD seeks to deter such attacks using deterrence measures including, where necessary, permanently based military garrisons or dedicated patrols, visits by deployed military forces, and more broadly the maintenance of world class deployable military forces. Should deterrence fail to prevent an attack, the Department remains confident that it has the necessary contingency plans and high readiness deployable forces in the UK and elsewhere to respond accordingly to any attack on a UKOT.