Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the average annual running cost is of a Type 45 destroyer.

The average annual running cost for a Type 23 Frigate and a Type 45 Destroyer is approximately £11 million and £13.5 million respectively. These figures have been rounded to the nearest £100,000. The Type 31e programme is in its pre-procurement phase and it is therefore premature to provide an estimate of running costs.

The costs given include those items that are directly attributable to the ship, such as personnel costs, fuel and port visits and do not include such items as maintenance, training and generation costs.