UK National Security Strategy 2010

20 October 2010 by Rod McLaren

It’s a busy week for security and criminal justice – the National Security Strategy was published on the 18th October, yesterday the Strategic Defence Review was published, and today the spending review plans for other departments including the Home Office and Ministry of Justice are announced.

The security of our nation is the first duty of government

The National Security Strategy says “The security of our nation is the first duty of government. It is the foundation of our freedom and our prosperity.” And it identifies the tier one risks as:

• International terrorism affecting the UK or its interests, including a chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear attack by terrorists; and/or a significant increase in the levels of terrorism relating to Northern Ireland.
• Hostile attacks upon UK cyber space by other states and large scale cyber crime.
• A major accident or natural hazard which requires a national response, such as severe coastal
  flooding affecting three or more regions of the UK, or an influenza pandemic.
• An international military crisis between states, drawing in the UK, and its allies as well as other states and non-state actors.

The tier two risks include CBRN attack, insurgency/civil war overseas that affect UK, UK organised crime, satellite infrastructure. The tier three risks include conventional military attack upon the UK, increased UK Border crossing by terrorists/organised crime/illegal immigrants and goods, accidental radioactive material releases in the UK, and other infrastructure disruption.

This strategy will obviously guide the funding choices for policing, security and the military in today’s spending reviews, though it’s already known that the MoD’s budget is being cut 8%.

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   — Rod McLaren    21 October 2010, 22:03    #

Mobbu needs a smart person for QA/testing UK military spending plan 2010-2020