Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what progress his Department has made in completing the Power Improvement Project refit of the Royal Navy Type 45 fleet.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer given by my noble Friend, the Minister of State in the Ministry of Defence (Lord Coaker), on 20 January 2025 to Question number HL3859 in the House of Lords:

Completing the Type 45 Power Improvement Project (PIP) work is dependent on the availability of ships to undertake the upgrade, balanced against the Royal Navy’s (RN) current and future operational commitments.

PIP conversions have been aligned to the routine Class Upkeep cycle, which has been optimised where feasible to accelerate delivery and increase availability. This has enabled an increase in the number of ships undergoing PIP Upkeep in parallel at HM Naval Base Portsmouth, where historically there was only a single Type 45 in Upkeep at any one time. Class availability is now maximised to ensure that the RN has been able to fulfil all its operational commitments.