Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the (a) predicted and (b) actual cost to the public purse was of the construction of HMS Artful; and what the (i) predicted and (ii) actual date of handover of HMS Artful to the Royal Navy was.

The first three Astute class submarines were ordered as a single batch. It is therefore not possible to identify separately the construction costs for Artful. The planned date of handover of Artful to the Royal Navy is August 2015.