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Defence Policy

My hon. Friend is right. There is misinformation and, on the odd occasion, mischief. It does not help us to develop an understanding and to convince people that our operations in Afghanistan are in our vital national interests and that we need to proceed with them. A number of hon. Members mentioned helicopters. The hon. Member for Woodspring (Dr. Fox) accused us of having a chronic under-availability in air capacity. I hope he recognises that there has been a 60 per cent. increase in the number of helicopters in the Afghan theatre. The main increase has been in the number of Sea Kings, which are now fitted with the new rotor blades that enable them to operate. Eight additional Chinooks are being modified, and we have bought an additional six Merlins. If we get the transition in Iraq that we are all hoping to see in the near future, it will potentially make the Merlin fleet available for use in the Afghan theatre. The hon. Gentleman asked what we are trying to achieve on piracy and about additional capacity. Our motives for getting involved in the European operation are to increase the capacity that is available to deal with the pirate problem off the east coast of Africa and to capture the political will of our allies. We are going to be able to ensure that there is no conflict with the operations of combined task force 150. By providing the command structure ourselves from Northwood, which we have offered to do, and having provided a contribution towards the European security and defence policy operation on piracy, we should be able to ensure that the operations are complementary. It gives us a lot more capacity for dealing with piracy than we would otherwise have. HMS Northumberland is on station, armed with beefed-up rules of engagement and able to take on the pirates, and to confiscate and destroy their equipment. Issues to do with decompression were raised. The hon. Gentleman made us aware of some grades in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office who have decompression capabilities available to them. I do not know what decompression is available to Members of Parliament when they leave theatre, either. Our people have a six-month tour of operation. They get rest and recuperation. We have introduced decompression for very good reasons. I hope that we can keep that up, develop the thinking behind it and ensure that we use that decompression methodology to minimise the stress on our personnel coming back from theatre. My hon. Friend the Member for Thurrock raised an important issue at this time of year: parcels and post for theatre. We have tried to discourage people from getting involved in the generous acts that they want to participate in because of the consequences that inevitably flow from them. Our people in theatre want to receive parcels and messages from their loved ones at Christmas. We have got the free post facility for them. If the system is swamped by unnamed packages, it inevitably delays what is most precious to the people who are spending Christmas in theatre. We are trying to develop other schemes and methods whereby people can show their appreciation. There are voucher schemes and the uk4u charity. The Under-Secretary of State for Defence, my hon. Friend the Member for North Durham (Mr. Jones), is looking at how else we can enable people to show their appreciation to the troops at Christmas time without creating the unforeseen circumstance that unsolicited mail creates of blocking that which is most precious to our people—messages and parcels from their loved ones. My hon. Friend the Member for Plymouth, Sutton (Linda Gilroy) raised the issue of Devonport, inevitably and yet again. We are committed to the sustainability of the royal naval base at Devonport. We know that submarine work alone will not provide that. We need other depth work to smooth the workload there. We are committed to delivering that. On top of that, flag officer sea training and the amphibious expertise will be based, kept and maintained at Devonport. It being Six o'clock, the motion lapsed, without Question put.