Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what the current level of Government funding is for all British activity in Antarctica.

The UK's investment for British activity in Antarctica comprises a) British Antarctic Survey activity (BAS) which is funded by DSIT; b) deployment of HMS Protector which is funded by the MOD. Across the past three financial years, Navy Command has spent an average of £17.871million to operate Protector in Antarctic (or nearby) waters; c) small grant funding from the FCDO to the UK Antarctic Heritage Trust and British Antarctic Territory which this year amounted to £150,000.

Additionally, the Government has invested significantly into the UK's infrastructure in Antarctica over the past decade, the largest package of funding since the 1980s. The Antarctic Infrastructure Modernisation Programme (AIMP) is a multi-year programme to 2031 to upgrade the UK's facilities at Rothera Research Station. Amounting to approximately £48m per year under the current spending framework, the AIMP includes the ongoing construction of the Discovery Building, a new science and operations centre for Rothera. £40m has also been invested in refurbishing the wharf at Rothera, completed in 2020. In 2014, the then Chancellor announced that the Government would provide £200m to build BAS's state of the art vessel, the RRS Sir David Attenborough (the SDA), one of the biggest commercial shipbuilding contracts undertaken in the UK in decades. The SDA departed for her maiden voyage in November 2021 and has already transformed the way UK research is conducted in the polar regions. She is expected to operate for at least 25 years, providing a modern platform for future generations of UK polar researchers.