Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the possibility of speeding up the Type 45 Power Improvement Project programme.

Completing the Type 45 Power Improvement Project (PIP) work is dependent on the availability of ships to undertake the upgrade, balanced against the Royal Navy’s (RN) current and future operational commitments.

PIP conversions have been aligned to the routine Class Upkeep cycle, which has been optimised where feasible to accelerate delivery and increase availability. This has enabled an increase in the number of ships undergoing PIP Upkeep in parallel at HM Naval Base Portsmouth, where historically there was only a single Type 45 in Upkeep at any one time. Class availability is now maximised to ensure that the RN has been able to fulfil all its operational commitments.