Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of (a) developing and (b) constructing additional Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers for the Royal Navy.

The Queen Elizabeth Class (QEC) aircraft carriers provide the backbone of the UK's carrier strike capability and are intended to do so for decades to come.

The exact capabilities and technology hosted on the QECs will evolve over time but having two is assessed as sufficient to assure continuous carrier capability.

Therefore, at the current time, there are no plans to build additional QEC carriers, but the Royal Navy continually assesses its current and planned force structures to ensure they are optimised to best deliver the tasks His Majesty's Government asks of it, now and in the future.