§ Mr. Trotterasked the Secretary of State for Defence how many refitting streams there are for nuclear attack submarines at (a) Chatham and (b) Devonport; and how the increased number of these submarines in the future can be refitted without the use of the facilities at Chatham.
§ Mr. BlakerChatham at present has the capacity to work at the same time on the refitting of two nuclear-propelled submarines, provided the work is suitably phased. Devonport has a newly-constructed submarine refitting complex which is already working on one nuclear-propelled submarine and is expected to start work on another one in parallel later this year. The intention is to develop Devonport's capacity so that with Rosyth it can carry the full load of nuclear refitting work. It is envisaged that, in order to achieve this, work on three nuclear submarines will be undertaken concurrently and this will call for some increase in the numbers of industrial workers employed at Devonport. At the same time the intervals between refits will be extended.