Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with reference to the oral contribution of the Minister for Universities, Science, Research and Innovation, of 16 October 2018, Official Report, column 494, what the projects are for which Cammell Laird has received £150 million.

We are funding major new research facilities. The £150m that the I referred to in my oral contribution of 16 October 2018, Official Report, column 494 is the approximate cost of the construction of the polar research vessel, the RRS Sir David Attenborough, being built by Cammell Laird of Birkenhead. There is ongoing expenditure on the research vessel’s construction and it will come into operation in late spring 2019.