Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what recent estimate he has made of the projected cost for the renewal of Trident.

The Ministry of Defence co-ordinates a range of interdependent programmes to support, maintain and renew the United Kingdom's nuclear deterrent, as detailed in the National Audit Office report 'The Defence Nuclear Enterprise: a landscape review', published in 2018.

In the 2015 Strategic Defence and Security Review, the Dreadnought Class submarine build programme was estimated to be likely to cost a total of £31 billion with an additional £10 billion contingency. The programme remains on track to deliver within this budget. It is too early to provide cost estimates for the Replacement Warhead Programme as much will depend on the eventual design requirements, and information relating to the programme may be subject to commercial and national security constraints.