Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how much allowance he has made for taxes and national insurance in his Department's calculations of the cost of a Type 31e frigate with a set price of £250m.

The National Shipbuilding Strategy makes clear that we judge that the capabilities the Royal Navy requires can be accommodated within the £250 million price, and our market research indicates that beyond this price the vessels would not be attractive to the sector of the export market we are targeting. We have conducted and shared this market analysis with industry. It is now for industry to develop proposals to deliver Type 31e at the price we have set, taking into account their costs, including normal business costs such as taxes and national insurance payments.