APPENDIX B
DEFENCE COMMITTEE
Memorandum to the Liaison Committee
1. The Defence Committee was appointed by the
House on 16 July 2001 and had its first meeting on 18 July.
2. Our predecessor Committee produced Annual
Reports to the House on its activities for each Session of the
last Parliament. They agreed an Annual Report for the 2000-01
Session just before the Dissolution.[44]
This memorandum therefore refers only to the work of the Defence
Committee in this Parliament to the end of 2001.
Inquiries to date
3. At our first meeting in July we considered
a programme of work and agreed to begin with an inquiry into reviews
carried out by the Ministry of Defence into Armed Forces' pension
and compensation arrangements, on which the MoD had published
consultation documents in March. We also discussed the desirability
of continuing the practice of our predecessors in tracking the
MoD's own annual reporting cycle and in monitoring major procurement
projects.
4. The tragic events of 11 September dictated
that we change our plans and turn our attention to examining the
threat from terrorism in the UK. We were briefed by the Prime
Minister, along with the Foreign Affairs, Home Affairs and Intelligence
and Security Committees, on 24 September. The chairmen of the
four committees met on the same day and subsequently to discuss
how best to ensure their work on the issues raised by the 11 September
events was co-ordinated.
5. We announced on 22 October our intention to
conduct a short inquiry into how our understanding of the threat
to UK security and interests had changed since 11 September. This
followed the Secretary of State for Defence's announcement at
the Labour Party conference in early October that the conclusions
of the 1998 Strategic Defence Review (SDR), which provide the
basis for the organisation of UK defence, would be reassessed.
This proposal was developed over the next weeks into the concept
of 'a new chapter' of the SDR, which will take account of defence
of the homeland and the UK's capability to counter and deter terrorism
abroad. Our inquiry attempted to elicit from the MoD more information
about the scope, process, and timetable for this exercise.
6. Our evidence sessions began with MoD officials
on 7 November and the Secretary of State was the final witness,
on 28 November. Our report was published on 18 December.[45]
We concluded that the threat from terrorism 'is now more pressing
and more dangerous' and that the global campaign against it should
be pursued relentlessly. We believe that tackling terrorism will
require additional military capabilities and that the Government
should make a commitment to find the extra money necessary to
fund these. We also set out our intention to monitor the work
on the new chapter of the SDR as it develops, and report on its
conclusions.
7. As a separate inquiry, but as part of our
overall activity on terrorism, we looked at the aspects of the
Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Bill which related to Ministry
of Defence responsibilities. These related primarily to the Bill's
proposed extension of the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Defence
Police force. The accelerated timetable for consideration of the
Bill in both Houses meant that we had to move quickly. We took
evidence from the Ministry of Police themselves, and from the
Association of Chief Police Officers, on 22 November and published
our report on 6 December, having agreed it the previous day.[46]
We proposed no amendments to the Bill's clauses. We concluded
that there had been a strong case for an extension of MDP powers
before 11 September but that this had been reinforced by the change
in the perceived threat from terrorism. However, we were clear
that wider powers needed to be accompanied by 'more robust safeguards'
and signalled our intention to monitor the effects of the changes
effected by the Bill's provisions.
Visit to Saif Sareea II
8. One of our first activities as a Committee
was a visit to a major military exercise in Oman, Saif Sareea
II (Swift Sword), in October. We had agreed at our first meeting
in July that it was important for us to observe this combined
British-Omani exercise which was Britain's largest for15 years,
involving 20,000 personnel from all three Services, including
a Royal Navy carrier group of 17 ships, an amphibious landing
group and a mine countermeasures group; 30 RAF combat aircraft
and 12 support aircraft; and a Mechanised Brigade, including 60
Challenger 2 tanks. The exercise was designed to test one of the
two fundamental capability assumptions of the 1998 Strategic Defence
Review— the ability to conduct a medium scale operation
of limited duration (up to six months).
9. The events of 11 September, the commencement
of the military campaign in Afghanistan, and the sensitive security
situation in the Gulf which followed made the relevance of our
visit even greater and we were able to talk to individual Service
personnel on stand-by to move into action, and their commanding
officers. We found it an extremely valuable and informative experience.
10. We intend to return to this area later in
the session when the MoD has distilled the lessons to be learned
from the Saif Sareea exercise.
European Security and Defence Policy
11. We have also this session followed up the
previous Committee's monitoring of the development of the European
Security and Defence Policy (ESDP). We took evidence from the
Minister for the Armed Forces on 19 December 2001 on the results
of the Laeken European Council four days earlier. Our focus was
on the progress achieved in putting together the so-called Helsinki
Headline Goal—a European force of Corps dimensions (60,000
troops) that could be deployed for up to a year on peace support
operations—and the military capability areas that still
need attention before a fully capable force could be deployed.
This is an area we will continue to monitor.
Other activities
12. In common with our predecessors, we believe
that visits to defence establishments are an important part of
our work. As part of our inquiry into the threat from terrorism,
we visited the Chemical Defence Establishment at Porton Down (now
officially known as the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory
(DSTL), Porton Down) in November to draw on their expertise in
chemical, biological and radiological weapons and hazards. We
were also keen to continue our predecessor committees' vigorous
examination of Defence Medical Services (DMS), and travelled to
Birmingham in December to visit to the newly established Centre
for Defence Medicine. This is the latest development in a long
history of reforms of the DMS. We were impressed with what has
been achieved at the Centre since it was opened in April but the
challenges facing the DMS which previous Defence Committee have
identified are deep-seated, and we intend to turn our attention
to them later in this Parliament.
13. We agreed when we first met in July that
it would be helpful to our work to hold a series of informal seminars
on a range of issues. Our plans in this respect have inevitably
been affected by the increased committee activity arising from
the need to address terrorism issues with some urgency. In spite
of these time constraints, we organised two such briefings in
October. The Ministry of Defence provided an informal briefing
for us on ongoing areas of interest such as defence organisation,
the defence budget and the single Services, as well as using the
opportunity to update us on the campaign against terrorism. The
session was introduced by the Secretary of State and the Minister
for the Armed Forces was in attendance throughout. We welcome
the MoD's co-operative approach to the Committee's work in this
respect.
14. As a high proportion of our membership were
new to the Defence Committee, as well as a sizeable subset being
new to the House, we agreed it would be helpful for the committee
staff and experienced specialist advisers to provide us with a
briefing on the work of select committees generally and on Defence
Committee practice specifically. This proved to be a useful exercise
and one that provided an opportunity for us to discuss the ways
in which the Committee might operate most effectively. We hope
to find an opportunity later in the Parliament to repeat the exercise.
15. We have continued our predecessors' practice
of meeting ministers and committees from overseas when they visit
this country. These included Mr Alesander Kuzmuk, the Ukrainian
Defence Minister; and Dr Vojislav Kostunica, President of the
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (in a joint informal meeting with
the Foreign Affairs and International Development Committees).
Future programme
16. Our Report on the threat from terrorism was
the first stage in what we hope will be a wide-ranging and comprehensive
study of the many implications of the changed security situation
following 11 September. Shortly before Christmas we announced
the terms of reference for the second part of the inquiry, which
will look at defence and security in the UK. This will cover a
very broad span of topics, ranging from civil contingency arrangements,
to the security of the defence estate, to missile defence. It
will take us into new territory in that some of the matters we
will be looking at are the prime responsibility of government
departments other than the Ministry of Defence. The lead department
on civil contingencies, for example, is now the Cabinet Office,
and many aspects of UK security are of course a matter for the
police and are therefore primarily a Home Office responsibility.
Our colleagues on the Home Affairs Committee have indicated that
they are content for us to take the lead in examining these issues
as part of our overall inquiry and we see this as a clear example
of effective co-operation between select committees allowing effective
scrutiny of issues which cross departmental boundaries.
44 Seventh Special Report, Session 2000-01, Annual
Report of the Committee for Session 2000-01 and Future Work of
the Committee, HC 516 Back
45
Second Report, Session 2001-02, The Threat from Terrorism,
HC 348-I Back
46
First Report, Session 2001-02, The Ministry of Defence Police:
Changes in Jurisdiction Proposed under the Anti-terrorism, Crime
and Security Bill 2001, HC 382 Back
| 
