To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how he defines the term growing Royal Navy.

The 2015 Strategic Defence and Security Review committed to growing the Royal Navy for the first time in a generation. The future fleet will include the Queen Elizabeth Class aircraft carriers, the first of which is at sea conducting trials; the Type 45 destroyers; the Type 26 frigates, steel for the first of which was cut in July; Type 31e frigates; the next generation Dreadnought submarines; the Astute Class submarines, and five new Offshore Patrol Vessels. In addition, a shipbuilding programme is under way to deliver four Tide Class tankers, the first of which, Royal Fleet Auxiliary TIDESPRING, joins the operational fleet later this year, as well as three new Future Solid Support Ships. We will also increase Naval Service personnel numbers by 400 to 30,600 by 2025.