Letter: Security threat

YOUR report on the prospect of large cuts in the number of Ministry of Defence police available in Scotland and the possible implications for safety at the nuclear submarine base at Faslane (17 December) tells only half the story.

It makes no mention of MoD plans to concentrate all the UK’s nuclear powered submarines at Faslane. Under those plans, by 2016-17 Faslane could be home base to twice the number of nuclear submarines, with the current complement of four Vanguard-class submarines carrying Trident missiles and the three Trafalgar hunter killer submarines joined by up to seven Astute multi-role submarines.

Given this, security at Faslane should be being improved rather than put at risk. Yet the chair of the MoD’s own nuclear safety board warned in his 2010 report that his confidence in the adequacy of future safety levels was being eroded by the cuts in the MoD’s core budget.

Even more worrying is that, as revealed by a freedom of information request, prior to its decision to concentrate all the UK’s nuclear submarines at Faslane the MoD undertook no assessment of the enhanced risk to Scotland’s population and environment.

Stephen Maxwell

Findhorn Place

Edinburgh