Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the remarks by Lord True on 15 April (HL Deb col 844), whether all those ships mentioned have funding in the Ministry of Defence programme.

The Type 26, Type 31, Dreadnought, Astute and SSN-AUKUS are all fully funded, along with the Fleet Solid Support ships, and one of two Multi-Role Ocean Surveillance Vessels, (MROS) has been procured. Funding for these programmes is split between the Navy and Defence Nuclear Enterprise, which primarily funds Dreadnought, Astute and SSN-AUKUS.

The Multi-Role Support Ship, the Type 32, the Type 83 programmes and the second MROS are all within, or in the process of, moving into the concept phase and therefore further work is required to establish their funding requirements. During this phase the procurement and whole life costs of the programme are determined. The programme and procurement strategy for these programmes will be decided following the concept phase. This is consistent with programmes of this size and complexity at this stage of their development.