Written question asked by Gordon Prentice (Labour) on Thursday, 13 October 2005, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 17 October 2005. It was answered by Lord Reid of Cardowan (Labour) on Monday, 31 October 2005 on behalf of the Ministry of Defence.

Trident

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how much it cost to store nuclear missiles for the Trident fleet in each of the last 10 years.

Answer: A shared pool of US/UK missiles is maintained and stored in the United States. Under the Polaris sales agreement (amended for Trident) the United Kingdom contributes to the cost of processing the missiles. This includes a small element in respect of storage costs, which is not separately identified. The costs of the weapons handling and storage facilities of the Royal Navy armament depot, Coulport attributable to Trident are some £2 million per year.

Secondary information