Prime Minister pledges to use every available capability to defend UK interests as Government publishes new security review

 

The Prime Minister has today launched a new security doctrine which will call on every part of Government to play its part to tackle intensifying threats.

 

In the foreword to the National Security Capability Review (NSCR) published today the Prime Minister writes:

 

“Over the past year in the UK we have witnessed appalling terrorist attacks in London and Manchester. But also a brazen and reckless act of aggression on the streets of Salisbury: attempted murder using an illegal chemical weapon, amounting to an unlawful use of force against the UK.

 

“Crucially what all of these incidents have made clear is that our national security is conditional on not only the police and security services who work so hard to keep us safe at home, or on the brave men and women of our Armed Forces working tirelessly around the world – but on our ability to mobilise most effectively the full range of our capabilities in concert to respond to the challenges we face.

 

“So as this report sets out, we have agreed a new approach to the orchestration of our national security capabilities. Based on the new Fusion Doctrine, this approach will ensure that in defending our national security we make better use of all of our capabilities: from economic levers, through cutting-edge military resources to our wider diplomatic and cultural influence on the world’s stage. Every part of our government and every one of our agencies has its part to play.

“As long as we defend our interests and stand up for our values, there will continue to be those who seek to undermine or attack us. But these people should be in no doubt that we will use every capability at our disposal to defeat them.”

 

The Fusion Doctrine will embed the lessons of the Chilcot report by creating a more accountable system to support collective Cabinet decision-making. For each NSC priority a senior responsible official will be accountable for the delivery of the strategy. The system will stress the importance of robust analysis, drawing on all sources of information and data from both inside and outside government.

 

The Doctrine also sets out how the Government will develop strategies so that the NSC gets better choices and shift behaviours towards a more genuinely whole-of-government approach to national security. For the first time economic goals and capabilities will be integrated into national security at official level by increasing involvement of economic departments in the development of strategy.

 

Contained in the NSCR is a commitment to publish a new counter-terrorism strategy which will include measures to improve our ability to disrupt terrorist plots in their early stages and improve frontline integration of our counter-terrorism response. 

 

The whole-of-government approach of the Fusion Doctrine will extend to serious and organised crime, including in our approach to disrupting high-harm organised crime groups and corrupt elites, a new intelligence framework, better community engagement and a National Economic Crime Centre in partnership with the private sector. 

 

In addition, and as previously announced in January, the Government has pledged to significantly expand the National Security Communications Team to tackle misinformation from our adversaries and make communications an integral part of our approach.

 

We are strengthening our overseas network of embassies, high commissions and other missions that underpins our international engagement.

 

The NSCR commits to continuing the implementation of the £1.9 billion National Cyber Security Strategy to ensure it keeps pace with the threat, including through the National Cyber Security Centre.

 

In January, the Government announced that as a result of the top-level findings of the NSCR a separate piece of work would be undertaken to ensure that defence capabilities and processes better meet the challenges and threats that we face in a sustainable and affordable way. This Modernising Defence Programme is ongoing.