Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the annual cost is of safeguarding the Trident nuclear deterrent.

The Department does not cost the safeguarding and security of individual capabilities. Given the multi-layered make up of security arrangements protecting the deterrent, overlapping with those of wider defence personnel and capabilities, identifying accurate costs could be achieved only at disproportionate cost.

The in-service costs of the UK's nuclear deterrent, including the costs of safeguarding, is estimated to be around six per cent of the annual defence budget.