Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what estimate her Department has made of the public expenditure that is required to extend the life of RMS St Helena.

Through its commitment of Financial Aid to the Government of St Helena, DFID subsidises the costs of the service provided by the RMS St Helena. The subsidy is the difference between the actual costs of operating the service and the actual revenue generated. So it is not possible to calculate the subsidy in advance and without knowing, for example the levels of occupancy on each service and operating costs. For the period between April and July 2016 the RMS service returned a profit of £220,000 so no subsidy was required. The cost of subsidising the operations of the RMS St Helena in FY 2015/16 was £620,000.