Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department is taking to ensure the operational viability of the UK's Trident programme as part of the continuous at-sea deterrent.

Her Majesty's Government takes its responsibilities extremely seriously to ensure and assure a minimum credible nuclear deterrent based upon a policy of Continuous At Sea Deterrence, delivered by the Royal Navy. To sustain this, we are committed to replacing the current Vanguard-class submarines with a fleet of four Successor ballistic missile submarines.