Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what contingency funding his Department allocated to the Dreadnought programme to replace the Vanguard-based nuclear deterrent in 2016; and how much of that contingency funding has been expended up to the financial year 2020-21.

In the 2015 Strategic Defence and Security Review, the Dreadnought Class submarine build programme was estimated to be likely to cost a total of £31 billion with an additional £10 billion contingency held by Her Majesty's Treasury (HMT). The programme remains on track to deliver on time and within this budget.

Up to March 2020, the Ministry of Defence has drawn down £705 million from the HMT-held Dreadnought contingency. This has allowed us to take opportunities to drive out cost and risk later in the programme. Access in the current Financial Year (2020/21) has yet to be concluded.