Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to the section on Barrow Infrastructure in the United Kingdom's Future Nuclear Deterrent: 2014 Update to Parliament, how he calculated that £42 million would be saved by a different approach to financing the rebuild of new support facilites in the Central Yard at the Barrow shipyard; what the early implementation steel work to the New Assembly Shop consists of; and how the £55 million of planned expenditure for which no specific purpose is assigned will be used.

The expected £42 million reduction in cost results from changes to the way the Department pays for the Barrow facility improvements. The payment changes reflect a move from overhead recovery from BAE Systems to direct funding by the Ministry of Defence, and an associated reduction in the company's profit to reflect the reduced level of commercial risk.

Much of the plant and equipment within the new assembly shop will require upgrading and refurbishing from the existing stock to support the Successor submarine build programme. This includes presses, rotators and specialist welding equipment; the testing of this equipment will use steel from which test-pieces and prototypes will be manufactured.

The 2014 Update to Parliament explained that £261 million of funding has been re-profiled into the Assessment Phase. Of this, £206 million is to support Barrow infrastructure. The remaining £55 million is the £55 million referred to in the Long Lead Items section of the 2014 update.