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Ministry of Defence

Answer

Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence pursuant to the answer of 3 February 2005, Official Report, column 1017W, on Swan Hunter, what the technical difficulties were; what the costs associated with each one were; whether there were technical difficulties relating to inaccuracies in measurements; and if he will make a statement. [220432] Mr. Ingram: Swan Hunter's design for the LSD(A) vessels was based upon the modification of the Enforcer Class concept design by the Dutch Royal Schelde shipyard, which was itself based upon the proven HNLMS Rotterdam. The company's successful bid for the design and construction of the first two ships was to adapt this existing concept design to meet the Statement of Requirement specified in the MOD's Invitation To Tender. The company subsequently encountered difficulties in adapting the design to the UK specification as the concept itself and the modifications needed were shown not to be as mature as they had previously believed. This underestimation of the degree of design work needed resulted in additional work that had not been costed in the company's bid. In September 2003 when the full scale of the additional work became clear the company announced that it would be unable to complete the contract without an adjustment to the original price. The £84 million contract amendment agreed in December 2004 reflected the additional cost to the company needed to complete the programme and was awarded only after full consideration of the options, from which the MOD assessed that the contract amendment offered the optimum value for money solution in the delivery of the LSD(A) capability. In addition to the £84 million needed to address the Swan Hunter design difficulty, £3 million has been added since the start of the contract to address design changes as a consequence of Naval and statutory safety requirements that were not fully defined at the time of the original contract placement. The MOD is unaware of any significant difficulties relating to inaccuracies in measurements.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

432 c1767-8W;432 c1762-3W; 220432

Session

2004-05

Subjects

Contracts Costs Design Measurement Shipbuilding Swan Hunter Shipbuilders RFA Lyme Bay RFA Largs Bay

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk