Tucked away in a Written Ministerial Statement yesterday comes news of progress on the UK’s national security forum:

Core group: The forum will have a core group of 12 publicly appointed members reflecting the broad range of the subject areas in the national security strategy. It is likely to include people with a range of experience and expertise in these issues (see below);

A register of associates: and in addition to this core group the Government will create a register of up to 100 expert associates will be who could be called upon to provide advice in specific areas.

Purpose: The purpose of the forum will be to provide expert advice to the National Security Committee (Cabinet Committee on National Security, International Relations and Development (NSID)).

Interestingly the NSF will be set up as a non-departmental public body, for the moment however, the Government will be establishing an interim forum in the early Autumn with members appointed on advice from the Cabinet Office. The Chair of the interim body will be announced shortly.

Role: The forum will be invited to focus on the published strategy to inform the annual updates, although it will be able to commission its own research subject to agreement of its programme by NSID.

The national security forum will be supported by a new national security secretariat in the Cabinet Office.

Alongside that, a horizon scanning unit will be established which will co-ordinate the security-related horizon scanning currently undertaken in a number of Government Departments, with the intention of giving it an overarching framework and a more coherent output.

The Government will also create (in consultation with select committees) a Joint Committee on the national security strategy comprising the Chairs of the key departmental Select Committees with an interest in national security, and other Members of Parliament and Peers with particular interests or experience.

The National Risk Register will be published shortly - its purpose will be to:

give the public information about risks to the UK from natural disasters, accidents and malicious threats over the next five years so that those who wish to can prepare for the consequences.

And there’s more after the jump.

Finally I’ve spotted this - another Ministerial statement this time regarding Adam Ingram’s review of the MoD’s counter-terrorism and resilience capabilities. You will be relieved to hear that:

The study provides a thorough analysis of defence’s role and of the capabilities it brings to bear in support of the Government’s counter-terrorism strategy-CONTEST—and domestic resilience. It reinforces a central theme of the National Security Strategy—that security threats and hazards are intertwined, with no simple distinctions between defence and wider security, and domestic and overseas considerations. It endorses the direction in which the Government are moving the security agenda and it makes a number of recommendations as to how defence could further refine its support in these important areas… phew!

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