Emily Thornberry – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2016-02-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the amount spent was from the public purse was on decommissioning and disposal of (a) HMS Ark Royal and (b) HMS Illustrious.

Mr Philip Dunne

Much of the work to decommission Royal Navy ships is undertaken using contracts that provide support services for all ships conducting Fleet activities at HM Naval Base, Portsmouth. Costs are not attributed to individual vessels.

Defence Equipment & Support (DE&S) was responsible for the removal of classified equipment and known hazardous materials from the former HMS ARK ROYAL. This work cost £0.7 million. Similar work is being carried out on the former HMS ILLUSTRIOUS which has yet to be sold. Expenditure incurred to date is £0.5 million.

The Disposal Services Authority (DSA), part of DE&S, disposes of defence equipment that is surplus to requirement. DSA costs are not attributed to individual platforms and information on these ships is not held in the format requested.