Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to page 31 of the Strategic Defence and Security Review 2015, what his Department's planning assumptions are for the number of vessels of the new class of general purpose frigates which his Department plans to procure.

The number of general purpose frigates to be procured through the programme has yet to be determined. Work on the programme will be scoped initially during the concept study outlined in the White Paper National Security Strategy and Strategic Defence and Security Review 2015 (Cmd 9161).