Lord Patten – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Patten on 2014-06-04.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many occasions in each of the last 10 years there have been incursions by Spanish naval or other state vessels into British Gibraltar territorial waters; and on how many occasions they have summoned the Spanish Ambassador or made other diplomatic representations over such incursions.

Baroness Warsi

The total number of unlawful incursions into British Gibraltar Territorial Waters (BGTW), from 2010 onwards, are as follows:

2010 – 103
2011 – 24
2012 – 229
2013 – 496
Jan-May 2014 – 185

During this period, the Spanish Ambassador has been summoned three times on incursions related matters – 15 November 2012, 19 November 2013 and 2 April 2014. The British Government cannot readily provide statistics for incursions into BGTW by Spanish State vessels before 2010. This could only be obtained at a disproportionate cost. The Government upholds British sovereignty over BGTW by challenging and protesting unlawful incursions. We will continue to make representations to the Spanish government at the highest level, making clear the damage they cause to our bilateral relationship.