Prospect welcomes MP's intervention on submarine dismantling

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Prospect welcomes calls by MPs from 3 parties for investment in submarine dismantling programme

Prospect welcomes the news that three MPs representing constituencies with nuclear workers have written to the Prime Minister asking for increased investment in the nuclear submarine dismantling programme, a programme that is led by Prospect members.



Trident nuclear submarine HMS Victorious near Faslane

Luke Pollard (Labour Devonport), Douglas Chapman (SNP West Fife) and Trudy Harrison (Conservative Copeland) have jointly written to the Prime Minister asking for funding for the dismantling of the submarines to be made available on a similar basis to the funding being used to decommission nuclear sites on land such as Dounreay and Sellafield.

Prospect members are at the forefront of this programme at both Devonport and Rosyth dockyards where 12 and 7 submarines are stored respectively, and Prospect has been working very closely with both Luke Pollard and Douglas Chapman on a range of issues relating to Devonport and Rosyth, such as jobs and investment.

"It's really good to see cross party support for the work our members are doing on this vital project" explained Prospects National Secretary for Scotland and Ireland Richard Hardy, who also leads on relations with chief contractor on the project Babcock Marine. "With more submarines reaching the end of their service lives we need to make real progress on dismantling the ones already out of service, we simply don't have the room to keep tying up redundant submarines, defueling them and then leaving them intact".

"Prospect really welcomes the input of these three committed Parliamentarians working on a cross party basis on this issue, we're happy to work with all three to help in the creation of jobs and training opportunities that the dismantling project will create" he concluded.

The full text of the letter is available here