To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how long is the lease taken out on the MV Polar Circle; if it remains his policy to retain a naval vessel in Falklands waters beyond April 1992; and if he will consider renaming MV Polar Circle, HMS Endurance for the duration of its lease.

Pursuant to the answer I gave my hon. Friend the Member for Battersea on 8 November at column 295, the Government are to purchase HMS Polar Circle as the permanent replacement of HMS Endurance as the Antarctic ice patrol ship. Polar Circle will return to home waters in May on completion of this season's patrol. She will remain Polar Circle for the rest of her current deployment. Her permanent name can now be considered, and it is intended that the Admiralty Board will reach a decision by the time she returns to the United Kingdom.