§ Mr. Warrenasked the Secretary of State for Defence if he will take action to certificate steel from British sources for use in the nuclear submarine construction programme.
§ Mr. PattieMost of the steel used in British submarines is of British origin. However, for certain specialised uses, British steel is not available. The Minister of Defence currently has to buy extruded steel frames from abroad and we have also had to seek foreign forgings for a prototype reactor pressure vessel. We are currently considering, in consultation with British industry, whether similar British equipment could be developed which would be competitive in terms of price, quality and time scale.