Written question asked by Lord Luce (Crossbench) on Thursday, 16 March 2017, in the House of Lords. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 30 March 2017. It was answered by Baroness Anelay of St Johns (Conservative) on Thursday, 30 March 2017 on behalf of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Indian Ocean: Piracy

Question: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what estimate they have made of the level of piracy in the Indian Ocean off the coast of (1) Yemen, (2) Somalia, and (3) Kenya, in each of the last five years.

Answer: The number of acts of piracy in the Western Indian Ocean has reduced sharply in recent years. According to the EU's counter-piracy mission, EUNAVFOR Operation Atalanta, there were 11 reported piracy related attacks on commercial vessels in the region in the last five years. Of those, only one – an attack against a Comoros flagged oil tanker, the Aris 13, on 13 March 2017 – was successful. By contrast, in 2011, there were 176 reported piracy attacks.

Secondary information