Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what progress has been made on the production of the Type (a) 26 and (b) 31e Frigates; and what plans he to export those frigates.

I refer the hon. Member to the response I gave to the right hon. Member for North Durham (Kevan Jones) and the hon. Member for Glasgow South West (Chris Stephens) on 5 September 2018 in response to Questions 167940, 167941, 167942, 167945 and 167315 and given by my noble Friend, the Minister of State for Defence, Earl Howe, to the noble Lord, Lord Campbell of Pittenweem, in the House of Lords to Question HL5772.

We awarded the £3.7 billion contract to manufacture the first batch of three Type 26 Frigates in June 2017. We cut steel on the first ship, HMS Glasgow, in July 2017 and the build programme is progressing well.

There has already been success in exporting the Type 26 Frigate: our international partner Australia has announced its decision to build the Hunter Class variant of the Type 26 Frigate to meet its SEA 5000 requirement. We have also supported by BAE Systems' bid for the Canadian Future Surface Combatant competition and are committed to supporting future potential export opportunities.