Security & Defence

The threat of serious and organised crime should be given recognition when discussing national security, according to the National Crime Agency (NCA). 

Margaret Hodge today stated that confusion at the centre of government is impacting on the government’s ability to “deliver value for taxpayers’ money”.

A National Audit Office (NAO) report reveals the number of foreign national offenders (FNOs) deported from the UK remains broadly unchanged whilst the number of FNOs in prison has increased by 4% since 2006 despite a tenfold increase in Home Office staff working on FNO cases. 

The chief of the Met Police has today emphasised the importance of the Home Office’s anti-radicalisation ‘Prevent’ strategy, arguing that "we can't arrest our way out of this problem. We do have to do a lot around prevention. Radicalisation is not an event, it's a process.”

Admiral Lord West predicts that more emergency legislation over monitoring communications is likely to be needed if the Communications Data Bill does not go forward.

Journalist and historian Peter Hennessy meets former chief of the defence staff General Sir David Richards to discuss Whitehall’s internal wars, and the need for truly strategic thinking in Whitehall

Former UK Border Agency chief executive Rob Whiteman writes about the challenges and frustrations of heading up, and ultimately dismantling, the organisation

The Home Office has today been ordered to pay US defence contractor Raytheon Systems more than £220m by an arbitration tribunal considering the termination of the e-borders contract.

Passport workers are on a 24-hour strike today over a pay dispute and staff shortages, with the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) claiming these workers earn as much as £3,000 less than other Home Office staff doing similar roles.

Like Robert the Bruce’s persistent spider, the people trying to reform the way the Ministry of Defence buys and manages equipment keep returning to the fray. Colin Marrs reports

The Home Office has managed to absorb the former UK Border Agency back into the Department without a significant fall in performance, according to a National Audit Office (NAO) report published today.

The UK Border Agency (UKBA), which was this year abolished by home secretary Theresa May, was “never going to work”, its former chief Rob Whiteman told the Public Administration Select Committee on 17 June.

The government should conduct a comprehensive review of its interventions in Afghanistan in 2001, the Commons’ Defence Committee said in a report on Tuesday. This should encompass not just military operations, but all the UK’s work under the NATO and UN missions.

Departments need more flexibility on pay so that civil service organisations don’t feel the need for “bureaucratic reorganisations” designed to escape pay controls and enable them to recruit skilled staff, the Public Accounts Committee has said.

The National Security Strategy (NSS) does not have sufficient contingency plans, creating a “dangerous and unwise” situation that could cause problems for the UK, a parliamentary committee warns today.

The Ministry of Defence’s Defence, Equipment and Support (DE&S) division was this month turned into an arm’s-length body and given an exemption from Treasury salary controls and civil service-wide promotion criteria.

Inadequate defences and complacency led to the 2012 attack on Camp Bastion, the Commons’ Defence Committee said yesterday.

The MoD’s procurement reform offensive has suffered a heavy defeat. John Louth considers the prospects of a successful counter-attack

But if the Treasury gives way, civil servants could do the job.

One of the two remaining consortia bidding to run the Ministry of Defence agency Defence Equipment & Support has pulled out of the competition, leaving chief of defence materiel Bernard Gray’s plans for a ‘Government-Owned, Contractor-Operated’ organisation in disarray.

There will be no further cuts to the civil service at the Ministry of Defence (MoD), but the Army could suffer more redundancies, according to Jon Thompson, the ministry’s permanent secretary.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has requested flexibility to improve the pay of top staff in order to compete with the private sector, senior officials told two hearings of the Commons’ Defence Committee in the last week.

Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) officials believe the department will be criticised by Sir John Chilcot’s inquiry into the Iraq War over the poor state of its record-keeping, according to its 2012-13 departmental improvement plan published last month.