Written question asked by Nick Harvey (Liberal Democrat) on Thursday, 16 July 2009, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 20 July 2009. It was answered by Bob Ainsworth (Labour) on Tuesday, 1 September 2009 on behalf of the Ministry of Defence.

Trident

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the cost of conventional forces protecting Trident was in 2008-09.

Answer: We do not routinely calculate the operating cost of specific committed or contingent force elements in support of the deterrent, and such estimates are necessarily illustrative. The answer, the right hon. Des Browne, as Defence Secretary, gave to the hon. Member on 8 March 2007, Official Report, column 2131W, estimated the annual operating costs of committed conventional force elements to be around £25-30 million. We have not prepared a more recent estimate as to do so would incur disproportionate costs.

Secondary information