Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what estimate he has made of the proportion of the contingency fund for the Dreadnought programme that has been used to supplement that programme’s costs to date.

As the Prime Minister announced in Parliament on 28 March (Official Report, column 756), the Ministry of Defence has been given access to £600 million in 2018-19 from the £10 billion contingency for the Dreadnought programme announced in the 2015 Strategic Defence and Security Review. This will allow us to drive out cost and risk later in the programme and ensures best value for the taxpayer. This will ensure the Dreadnought programme remains on track to be delivered on time and within its overall £31 billion forecast.