Ministry of Defence must accelerate the reform process
The Government has announced a strategic defence review, the first since 1998, to take place after the next election. This green paper, 'Adaptability and Partnership: Issues for the Strategic Defence Review’ (Cm. 7794) aims to contribute to discussion of the key issues and to build a broad consensus on the direction to take.
It sets out the assessment of the UK's interests, the changing international context in which they will be promoted, the use of force in this changing context, and key areas where there is a need to adjust policy and process.
Report calls for the formation of a National Security Committee
The Home Affairs Committee believes that while the structures now in place may be suitable for combating the terrorist threat as currently constituted, it is not confident that government institutions have the desire to constantly adapt to meet ever-changing threats. A lack of political will has hindered the institution of valuable reforms such as regional policing counter-terrorism units and a degree of institutional inertia has set in to counter-terror operations in the UK.
'The Home Office's Response to Terrorist Attacks’ (HC 117-I) calls for the merger of many different counter-terrorism committees into a single, formalised National Security Committee, chaired by the Home Secretary or Prime Minister and assisted by a National Security Advisor.
Changes to the machinery of government involved ‘wholly inadequate’ consultation
In 'The Cabinet Office and the Centre of Government’ (HL 30) the House of Lords Constitution Committee suggest that power within the cabinet has become increasingly centralised to the Prime Minister and recommend that structures of accountability should be reformed to mirror that change.
The Committee expresses support for the principles of collective responsibility but recognise that increasingly the Cabinet Office has become responsible for overseeing the delivery of government policy across departments. They stress that accountability mechanisms within the UK constitution are not set up to reflect this new reality with parliamentary and select committee scrutiny based on individual Ministers reporting to Parliament for activities within their departments