Government pressed over Trident costs secrecy

The government has been accused of keeping vital information about the cost and contracts for a new Trident nuclear missile system secret despite promises that it would be open and disciplined over spending on defence.

David Cameron and the chancellor, George Osborne, have pledged greater transparency and the MoD's recently published business plan included a commitment to release "new data relating to tender documents for contracts over £10,000, new items of central government spending over £25,000, [and] new central government contracts over £10,000".

But officials are declining to publish figures and there are concerns that by the time a formal decision on how to replace the existing Trident fleet is announced – after the 2015 general election, at the Liberal Democrats' insistence – so much will have been spent already and the contracts will have been drawn up so tightly that the outcome will be a foregone conclusion.

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