Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps he is taking to ensure that the cost to the public purse of the four Dreadnought class nuclear ballistic missile submarines does not exceed the £31 billion budget.

We have delivered our 2015 Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR15) commitment to establish the Defence Nuclear Organisation, the Submarine Delivery Agency and the Dreadnought Alliance to strengthen our organisational, industrial and commercial arrangements for the Dreadnought submarine programme.

The Programme remains on track to deliver on schedule and within the estimated cost of £31 billion stated in the SDSR15, which also set a contingency of £10 billion.

As the Prime Minister announced in Parliament on 28 March 2018 (Official Report, column 756), the Ministry of Defence has been given access to £800 million in Financial Year 2018-19, which will contribute to the Dreadnought programme. This will enable us take opportunities to drive out cost and risk later in the programme and ensures best value for the taxpayer.