§ Mr. DuncanTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence what is the latest estimate of the cost of the Trident programme; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. RifkindThe current estimate of the total project cost of the Trident programme is £10,676 million, if all expenditure, including payments already made, is brought up to current prices and a common exchange rate of £1 = $1.74, as assumed in the long-term costing of the defence programme. If payments already made are expressed at the prices and exchange rates actually incurred, the equivalent estimate is now £9,596 million. Expenditure on the Trident programme to 31 August 1992 represented some 60 per cent. of the overall estimate.
The revised estimate of £10,676 million represents a small real cost reduction of £18 million compared to that announced last year, after allowing for the effects of inflation and exchange rate variations. The increase in cash 418W terms is £158 million. The reduction in real terms since the original 1982 Trident II estimate, including the savings resulting from the decision to have United Kingdom missiles processed in the United States facility at Kings bay, Georgia, now stands at some £2–8 billion.
The proportion of the programme to be undertaken in the United Kingdom has increased from 72 per cent. to 74 per cent.
The Select Committee on Defence previously asked that when announcing the annual revised estimate, I should report on the state of the project as a whole. I am pleased to say that the Trident programme remains on schedule to enter service in the mid-1990s. There has been no slippage in the in-service date since the decision to purchase Trident II was announced in March 1982. I am, as in previous years, sending to the Chairmen of the Public Accounts Committee and of the Select Committee on Defence a more detailed report covering the points on which the Select Committee on Defence sought advice. I am also placing a copy of this report in the Library of the House.