Downing Street Says

» Thursday, September 16, 2010

Trident

Asked whether the Prime Minister supported delaying a decision on Trident until after the next election, the PMS said that the decision on Trident had already been taken and that the Coalition agreement set out the position that we would maintain the nuclear deterrent, but that we were examining the issue of value for money.

Asked when the examination would reach a conclusion and an announcement would be made on what form the replacement would take, the PMS said that there was a value for money review underway, which would be based on expert and military advice, and that the review should be seen in the context of the spending review and strategic defence review.

Put that the decision was not going to be delayed until after the next election, the PMS reiterated that the decision had already been taken: that we would maintain the nuclear deterrent.

In response to repeated questions about timing and delay, the PMS said that we would maintain a nuclear deterrent, and that as part of the value for money review, we would be looking at the profile of expenditure.

Asked whether the Government was considering the argument that a delay to spending could cost more in the long-run, the PMS said that we would be considering value for money.

Asked whether an effective deterrent was a continuous at sea one, the PMS said that the Prime Minister had made his views known on this and that we were committed to an effective nuclear deterrent.

No Comments »

No comments yet.

RSS feed for comments on this post.

Post a public comment

Name (required)
E-mail (required)
(You must give an email address, but it will not be displayed to the public.)
Website
(You may give your website, and it will be displayed to the public.)

Comments:

This is not a way of contacting the Prime Minister. If you would like to contact the Prime Minister, go to the 10 Downing Street official site.

Privacy note: Shortly after posting, your name and comment will be displayed on the site. This means that people searching for your name on the Internet will be able to find and read your comment.

Original PMOS briefings are © Crown Copyright. Crown Copyright material is reproduced with the permission of the Controller of HMSO and the Queen's Printer for Scotland. Click-use licence number C02W0004089. Material is reproduced from the original 10 Downing Street source, but may not be the most up-to-date version of the briefings, which might be revised at the original source. Users should check with the original source in case of revisions. Comments are © Copyright contributors. Everything else is © Copyright Downing Street Says.