Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether the 2010 contract for £15 million with BAE Systems for the replacement of propulsion systems in the eight Hunt-class mine countermeasures vessels is still to be completed by October 2016; and if he will make a statement.

To date, work to replace the propulsion system on four of the Hunt Class mine countermeasures vessels has been completed with the fifth due for completion later this year. Due to changes applied to the ships upkeep programme combined with the need to address emerging engineering issues, work on the remaining three vessels is now scheduled for completion by late 2019.