Topical Questions
Oral Answers to Questions - Defence
House of Commons debates, 31 January 2011, 2:30 pm

David Crausby (Bolton North East, Labour)
Can the House be assured that the pace of submarine production at the Barrow shipyard is sufficient to retain the skills that will deliver an independent, British-made successor to the Vanguard submarine?

Liam Fox (Secretary of State, Defence; North Somerset, Conservative)
Yes. In the SDSR, we are committed to the seventh Astute submarine, partly to ensure that the skills base was there as we went through to the successor programme. We regard the ability to build and maintain our nuclear deterrent successor programme as part of our sovereign capability.