John Spellar – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Spellar on 2016-10-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, for what reason the Government made a decision to use French steel for the new Trident submarines.

Harriett Baldwin

Steel for the Successor submarine programme is sourced by the Prime Contractor, BAE Systems. There was no viable UK bid for the specialised steel required for this part of the Successor submarine manufacture.

Other stages of construction will include grades of steel manufactured by British suppliers and we expect them to take the opportunity to bid.

85% of BAE System’s supply chain for the new submarines is based in the UK.