Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what recent estimate he has made of the total lifetime cost of the Trident renewal programme.

The Dreadnought submarine programme remains within overall budget and on track for the first of class, HMS Dreadnought, to enter service in the early 2030s.

Inflation has remained higher than expected for an extended period and had an adverse impact on the cost forecasts for this programme when compared to the forecasts from a year earlier.

As the programme is in its preliminary phases, it is too early to provide cost estimates for the replacement warhead programme.