The Ministry of Defence has formally withheld all detailed budget and financial forecast information for the Dreadnought nuclear submarine programme, citing national security concerns and invoking Section 23 of the Freedom of Information Act.
The decision was set out in a letter from Permanent Secretary Jeremy Pocklington to the Defence Committee chair Tan Dhesi on 10 April, written in response to questions raised during an evidence session on the MoD’s Annual Report and Accounts for 2024-25, in which the Department had committed to providing further information on several outstanding questions.
Pocklington explained that “continuing to publish detailed budgets and financial forecasts would provide more detail than desirable to adversaries about the intended delivery schedule for Dreadnought and the transition from the Vanguard Class, particularly when aggregated with other open-source information”, adding that inferences about programme progress “could be used to attempt to disrupt it, or lead to perceived vulnerabilities in our nuclear deterrence system which could undermine its effect.”
The Department concluded, based on the Public Interest Test and the advice of the Principal Security Adviser for the programme, that Section 23 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 applied, and that “it was therefore necessary to withhold all detailed financial information from publication for the year ending 31 March 2025”, with a further Public Interest Test to be conducted as part of the data collection exercise for the year ending 31 March 2026.
Costs are almost irrelevant when it comes to these subs. I don’t believe a carte-blanche attitude is at the heart of this programme, as it was always going to be expensive, and the current Iran war isn’t going to help reduce material costs.
Which means the budget is totally out of control and eating the conventional budget.
There is no national security justification for covering that up.
Of course it might be that ISD has been accelerated….by STARMITE….
If by ISD you mean In Service Date then that would be to his credit. We are currently putting the crews under inhuman strain and running the risk of the CASD failing. I would support cutbacks elsewhere to put that right although I would rather see increased spending.
I smell BS.
I agree with SB.
Standard to hide things on NS grounds.
Embarrassment at the budget and what it is doing to conventional defence. And we know this government, so far, have done nothing about expanding conventional defence re numbers, but are delighted to put as many other funding streams as possible into the Defence budget.
“Biggest sustained increase since the Cold War” is how endless MoD Parrots tell it, time and again, and nobody in the media contradicts them.
Pensions. Chagos. Afghan rehoming, DNE, Ukraine Ops, SIA, all critical to conventional defence numbers? Nope.
I expect if a FOIA was ever asked as to the TRUE % spent on conventional defence, that is for kit, units, and personnel to staff them, that info would also be withheld.
These boats are obviously eating the defence budget and will more than likely be over budget and late into service. Not sure if anything can be done to mitigate the costs.
They are stealth boats so maybe they can just say boats 3 and 4 are being built but they’re just so stealthy you can’t see them and just not build them?