Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to his foreword in his Department's publication entitled The Strategic Defence Review 2025: Making Britain Safer: secure at home, strong abroad, updated on 8 July 2025, when he expects the next submarine to be produced; and whether this will be in line with the schedule of continuous submarine production producing a submarine every 18 months.

On current plans, construction of SSN-AUKUS submarines will start in the late 2020s, with the aim to deliver the first UK submarines into service in the late 2030s.

To meet this demand we are, as announced in the Spending Review, investing more than £6 billion to transform submarine-building infrastructure at Barrow and Raynesway and the supply chain. This will enable an 18-month submarine production rate and a 12-month nuclear reactor production rate, which in turn will allow us to grow to a class size of up to 12 SSN-AUKUS submarines as well as to deliver on our commitments to Australia under the AUKUS partnership.