Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what recent discussions he has had with Babcock on building dockyard (a) capacity and (b) capability at Devonport to (i) maintain and defuel currently operational and future SSBN submarines, (b) maintain attack submarines and (c) defuel attack submarines; and what estimate he has made of the cost to Babcock of that work.

To maintain our nuclear submarines in service and subsequently decommission and defuel these at the end of their operational lives, we need safe, secure and efficient specialist nuclear infrastructure. The Ministry of Defence is working with Babcock, Rolls-Royce, the Defence Nuclear Safety Regulator and the Office for Nuclear Regulation to determine future infrastructure requirements, docking durations and therefore investment decisions.