ROYAL DOCKYARDS (Hansard, 10 February 1993)

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Defence (Viscount Cranborne)

It is not yet possible to make an announcement on where the refitting of Trident submarines will take place. We have received offers from Devonport management Limited and from Babcock Thorn Limited for developing facilities for nuclear refitting at Devonport dockyard and Rosyth dockyard respectively. We are at present concerned that the prices quoted in the offers may significantly understate the likely eventual cost of the work. Before we can decide between them we need to be absolutely sure that we can be confident of the prices quoted. We are not yet in this position.

We shall be scrutinising these offers, and studying other related matters further, before coming to a final decision, which we hope to do as soon as possible.

The Government's aim is to achieve a healthy, competitive structure to ensure that the future interests of the taxpayer are safeguarded. The Royal Navy will have a continuing and substantial programme of refit work for its surface fleet of frigates, destroyers, carriers, mine counter measure vessels and other ships, as well as its submarine fleet. Although the private shipbuilders can and will continue to do some refit work, they of themselves cannot ensure effective competition. It is through competition that refit prices will provide the best value to the Royal Navy and protect the taxpayer.

The scope and nature of nuclear refitting work are such that it must be allocated to one dockyard. However, for the reasons of competition in other work which I have described, we plan to continue with two Royal dockyards.