The UK’s national security machinery: Government Response to the Committee’s First Report

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Appendix 2: Letter to the Chair from the National Security Adviser

The Government welcomes the Committee’s report on the UK’s national security machinery.

Following the publication of the Integrated Review (IR) in March this year, the Government undertook a comprehensive review of the core structures of our national security machinery. Our objective was to ensure that Integrated Review objectives and priority actions, as well as future policy decisions, are implemented swiftly and effectively, and to establish systems that better support the National Security Council (NSC). This includes designing and implementing more integrated, adaptive and innovative structures and capabilities. As the Government has previously set out, many of the core structures of our national security machinery at the centre of government remain unchanged; namely the NSC, the National Security Adviser (NSA) and the National Security Secretariat (NSS). But a new component—National Security Ministers (NSM)—will both improve Ministerial oversight and inject greater pace and agility into our management of the government’s national security business. Further, we have introduced a new central structure to reflect the prominence given by the Integrated Review to science and technology: the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC), which will sit alongside the NSC and operate seamlessly with it.

The subordinate machinery for managing our national security priorities has also changed. We are in the process of creating new senior official-level Integrated Review Implementation Groups (IRIGs), which will oversee the development and implementation of a series of Integrated Review sub-strategies. Each sub-strategy will have a named senior official as the Senior Responsible Owner (SRO), who is tasked by the NSA to convene departments from across government to ensure that decisions align with, and build upon, the IR and harness diverse perspectives, expertise and experience (from within and beyond HMG) in order to drive innovation, adaptation and integration. Additionally, we have created a new central strategy function within the NSS. This Strategy Unit will both oversee the development and delivery of the SRO-led sub-strategies as a whole, and enhance the support provided to Ministers in making grand strategy.

In addition to these changes in the centre of government, many departments are making complementary reforms to ensure that enhanced support is provided to Ministers in both developing and delivering strategic approaches to national security.

Please find enclosed the Government’s responses to each of the Committee report’s recommendations and requests. A response to your letter of 27 October to the National Security Adviser shall follow in due course.