Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what progress his Department has made on its four-year assessment phase of the procurement process for new fleet solid support ships for the Royal Fleet Auxiliary; and if he will make a statement.

In line with the strategy to procure the Fleet Solid Support ships through international competition, the programme has recently completed a period of market engagement with UK and global shipbuilders. These informal discussions have helped us to better understand the technical challenges and cost drivers of the project. We are planning to launch the formal competition to build the ships in summer of this year, and award the main build contract in 2020.