TRIDENT (Hansard, 26 January 1995)

§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Defence (Lord Henley)

The current estimate of the total project cost of the Trident programme is £11,682 million, if all expenditure, including payments already made, are brought up to current prices and a common exchange rate of £1-$1.48, 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 £9,770 million. Expenditure on the Trident programme to 31 October 1994 represented some 78 per cent. of the overall hybrid estimate.

After allowing for the effects of inflation and exchange rate variations, the revised estimate of £11,682 million represents a real cost reduction of £211 million compared to that announced last year. The increase in cash terms is £51 million. The reduction in real terms since the original 1982 Trident II estimate, including the savings resulting from the decision to have UK missiles processed in the United States facility at King's Bay, Georgia, now stands at some £3.7 billion. The proportion of the estimate for work undertaken in the United Kingdom has increased from 70 per cent. to 71 per cent., reflecting the effects of the change in exchange rate, price base and volume changes in the year.

I am pleased to confirm that HMS "Vanguard" entered operational service in December 1994, achieving the in-service date set when the decision to purchase Trident II was taken in 1982, and that the remainder of the Trident programme remains on schedule. As in previous years, we shall be sending to the Chairmen of the Public Accounts Committee and of the Select Committee on Defence a more detailed report on the programme. I am also placing a copy of this report in the Library of the House.