Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what estimate he has made of by how much the cost of the Type 26 programme is expected to increase for every year that the in-service date for each ship is delayed.

For equipment procurement programmes, the cost and schedule is set at the main investment decision, however, the Type 26 Global Combat Ship (GCS) programme has not yet reached that stage.

As is normal practice for equipment procurement programmes, we have developed a planning assumption that the first Type 26 GCS would come into service in 2022.

We are working with industry to develop an optimised schedule for the Type 26 GCS programme to implement the Strategic Defence and Security Review 2015. This work is ongoing and will inform the main investment decision.