Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Richard Graham and Philip Dunne

Monday 8th June 2015 Commons Chamber

[Richard Graham (Gloucester) (Con)]

12. What progress his Department has made on the introduction of Type 26 frigates.

[The Minister for Defence Procurement (Mr Philip Dunne)]

As my hon. Friend knows, in February this year the Prime Minister announced the awarding of a contract for the demonstration phase of the Type 26 programme, valued at £859 million, to complete the detailed design for the ship and engage the maritime supply chain to procure essential long-lead items. This is an incremental programme and detailed discussions with the contractors continue. We intend to award a contract for the manufacture phase next year.

[Richard Graham]

That is welcome news for many manufacturers and specialist engineers. Can my hon. Friend confirm that there is no danger of falling behind our manifesto commitment for a 1% plus inflation equipment plan for our defence, and that that will not fall victim to any deferring of expenditure referred to by the Defence Secretary?

[Mr Dunne]

The current contract is completely taken into account in the equipment plan, which, as my hon. Friend rightly points out, is due to increase by 1% a year in excess of inflation for each of the next five years, and we have planned for it to do so during the currency of the 10-year plan.