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Britain has previously “strongly discouraged” the use of private armed security guards and ministers have been working to find a way to change the law to protect shipping from pirates off the Horn of Africa, Foreign Office Minister Henry Bellingham said in a speech on Oct. 12. Cameron announced the switch in an interview with BBC TV’s Andrew Marr Show today.

“We are now going to say to British flag ships that they will be licensed if they want to have security guards, armed guards, on those ships,” Cameron said. “The evidence is that ships with armed guards don’t get attacked, don’t get taken for hostage or for ransom and so we think this is a very important step forward.”

The Home Office has agreed to license the guards, Cameron said.

Of 199 attacks by Somali pirates in the first nine months, 12 percent resulted in hijacks, compared with a 28 percent success rate a year earlier, the London and Kuala Lumpur-based International Maritime Bureau said in an e-mailed report on Oct. 18. There were a record 352 incidents globally, it said.

‘Complete Stain’

“The extent of the hijack and ransom of ships round the Horn of Africa I think is a complete stain on our world,” Cameron said. “The fact that a bunch of pirates in Somalia are managing to hold to ransom the rest of the world and our trading system I think is a complete insult and so the rest of the world needs to come together with much more vigor and I want to help lead this process.”

The U.K. is working with other countries to tackle the causes of piracy in Somalia, which is a “broken country,” Cameron said. Somali pirates are holding 50 ships and 528 hostages, environmental group Ecoterra said last month.

The surge in attacks by Somali pirates spurred navies to increase patrols and caused shipowners to improve on-board security. The use of private armed guards may rise by 30 percent next year, according to U.K.-based Protection Vessels International Ltd., the largest company to deploy marines on vessels.

The European Union Naval Force, know as EU Navfor, estimates 20 percent of world trade passes through the Gulf of Aden between Yemen and Somalia. Ships use it to get to the Suez Canal, which connects the Mediterranean Sea and Red Sea. It is the fastest crossing from the Atlantic Ocean to the Indian Ocean, according to the Suez Canal Authority.

Somalia hasn’t had a functioning government, police force or court system since the 1991 overthrow of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre. Al-Shabaab, an al-Qaeda-linked militia, has waged a four-year campaign to remove the country’s United Nations-backed government and controls most of southern and central Somalia.

To contact the reporter on this story: Thomas Penny in London at tpenny@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Hertling at jhertling@bloomberg.net