Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how much of the funding allocated in the Defence and Equipment Plan 2013 for the procurement of new equipment will be spent on the successor nuclear deterrent programme and any redesign of the nuclear warhead.

Of the £64.5 billion referred to in the 2013 Equipment Plan we plan to allocate to the procurement of new equipment, £2.3 billion is for the successor nuclear deterrent programme in the period up to Main Gate in 2016, when a future investment decision will be made. The 2010 Strategic Defence and Security Review determined that a replacement warhead would not be required until at least the late 2030s, meaning a decision to replace the existing warhead will not be required until the next Parliament. In the meantime, we are maintaining the capability at the Atomic Weapons Establishment to design a replacement warhead should that be required. Current forecasts indicate that costs should remain within the 2006 White Paper estimate: £11-14 billion for the submarine and £2-3 billion for the warhead (at 2006 economic conditions).