Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether the build of HMS Forth was affected by (a) design problems, (b) technical issues or (c) relationship issues between the Royal Navy, Ministry of Defence and the contractor.

The firm price contract for three River Class Offshore Patrol Vessels awarded to BAE Systems in August 2014 has a value of £378 million. The contract does not separately identify the cost of each of the three ships. Of the contract value, £30 million is for items including trials, spares, testing and Government Furnished Equipment. The value of the contract remains unchanged.

At contract award, the estimated build time of HMS Forth was 31 months. Delivery of the ship, in January 2018, was not in accordance with the planned schedule, owing to delays during construction. The build of HMS Forth was not affected by design, technical or relationship issues.

At contract award, the planned contract acceptance date for HMS Forth was May 2017. Contractor sea trials were expected to commence two months before contractual acceptance.