Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the fire in a submarine construction facility in Barrow-in-Furness on delivery of the AUKUS submarine programme.

I refer the right hon. Member to the written statement I laid in the House on 30 October 2024 on this issue. The UK remains committed to delivering the SSN-AUKUS Optimal Pathway announced by the three leaders of the AUKUS nations in March 2023. The UK’s continued commitment to AUKUS was recently demonstrated by the Defence Secretary hosting his Australian and US counterparts at the Old Royal Naval College in London to drive forward progress on AUKUS.