Date: FRIDAY 5^TH DECEMBER 2008

Time: Around 12 noon

Location: BERTH 38. DOCK GATE 4

"...an extension of the Devonport Future Nuclear facilities Partnering Agreement to cover £147M additional work to support docking, de-fuel, de-equip and lay-up preparation of nuclear submarines"

"...A £1Bn, ten year Partnering Contract with Rolls Royce Propulsion Engineering to provide in service support of nuclear propulsion plant for Swiftsure, Trafalgar, Vanguard and Astute Class Submarines. The performance and cost incentivised contract forms the first part of a long term strategic partnering and business transformation project." ... more

The risk of a nuclear accident is ever-present in the operation, servicing and decommissioning of UK submarines. Any accident at sea could affect the reactor. Periodic re-fits or decommissioning require high level radioactive fuel to be removed and stored. Reactors remains in the 15 redundant submarines stored afloat at Devonport and Rosyth in Scotland. Emergency safety plans are constantly exercised by the MoD and Local Authorities. NIS will be listing exercises and a full list of accidents in the near future. ... more

*Norman Baker:* To ask the Secretary of State for Defence in which year he expects that the Trident nuclear capability would, if not upgraded, become obsolete. [116808]

*Des Browne:* As the White Paper we published on 4 December makes clear, even with a life extension, our existing Vanguard boats will leave service from the early 2020s. Unless we participate in the life extension programme for our existing Trident D5 missiles, it will not be possible to retain the missiles in service much beyond 2020, except at much greater cost and technical risk. ... more

*Lynne Jones:* To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what his estimate is of the time it would take to procure further Trident D5 missiles. ... more

The PM uses the term 'deterrence' and 'nuclear weapons' interchangeably, suggesting that they have the same meaning. But this is misleading. Nuclear ‘deterrence’ was a 1980’s doctrine that had many elements including survival exercises to ‘prove’ we could endure a nuclear war and bunkers for national and local authorities. But these plans have gone now and Kelvedon Hatch, the Seat of Government bunker in Essex for 600 Government personnel, is an heritage site you can visit for ... more

Angus Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what assessment his Department has made of the use of satellites for extremely high frequency communications with Trident nuclear submarines ... more