Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether the construction of the National Flagship will (a) be funded from the defence budget and (b) affect other defence capabilities.

The capital cost of building the National Flagship will fall to the defence budget as part of the Government's wider commitment to the UK shipbuilding industry. The through-life costs will be addressed at the next Spending Review. The build cost is expected to be about 0.1% of the defence budget over the next four years and will be brought into our spending plans in the 2022 annual budget cycle.