Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what estimate he has made of the proportion of UK steel which will be used to produce the five new frigates announced on 6 September 2017.

A competition to design and build the Type 31e General Purpose Frigate in the UK was announced on 7 September 2017. It is therefore too soon to say who the successful supplier(s) will be. The responsibility for steel procurement on major shipbuilding programmes will lie with our prime contractor(s), who take into account cost, time and quality.

However, as part of our support for British steel manufacturers, new public procurement policy guidelines have been introduced, and UK steel suppliers will be strongly encouraged to bid in line with these. Going forward, the Ministry of Defence will continue to carry out early market engagement and forecast our steel requirements for shipbuilding through the publication of the UK Government Steel Pipeline.