Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment he has made of the capacity of English, Welsh and Northern Ireland shipyards to build surface warships following the closure of the BAE shipyard in Portsmouth.

As part of the wider maritime negotiations with the Ministry of Defence in 2013, BAE Systems took the decision to focus its shipbuilding activities on the Clyde in Scotland. This decision has secured a sustainable future for the UK shipbuilding industry.

There are a number of commercial yards outside Scotland that could be considered as potential alternatives; however, no assessment of the viability of these shipyards as a potential focus for complex warship building has been undertaken.