Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, in the light of the statements in the National Shipbuilding Strategy about their intention to grow the Royal Navy fleet, what is their aspiration for the number of frigates for the Royal Navy by 2040.

As explained in the Strategic Defence and Security Review 2015 White Paper and in the National Shipbuilding Strategy, our ambition is to sustain a destroyer and frigate force and to grow this force by the 2030s. The Type 31e General Purpose Frigate, which we announced our intention to procure on 6 September 2017, will give us the opportunity to do this, although we have not yet made detailed planning assumptions for the precise number of frigates that the Royal Navy will operate in 2040.