The first-ever national security strategy will see Government working closely with security firms to help protect busy areas, national borders and the UK’s critical infrastructure.
Outlining plans to parliament, Gordon Brown said he wants to “forge new partnerships for progress and tolerance” by involving the private and voluntary sectors, community and faith organisations and individuals.
He said, “Our new approach to security also means improved local resilience against emergencies, building and strengthening local capacity to respond effectively in a range of circumstances from floods to possible terrorism incidents”.
“Overstretched”
The strategy also outlines plans for the government to work with architects who design protection against bomb blasts into buildings and with “international partners” that can help track terror suspects across the world.
David Taylor-Smith, CEO of G4S Security Services, welcomed the prospect of extra private sector involvement in emergency planning, saying that although the emergency and security services in the UK have responded very well to individual threats, they are generally overstretched.
“The establishment of a national security forum is a first step in ensuring that the government has access to many views,” he said.
“However we would hope that it leads to more concrete plans to get the private sector, which has the expertise and resources needed, involved. Indeed we believe it is entirely logical to do so as the private sector already owns and operates a significant proportion of the critical national infrastructure in the UK.”
“Talking shop”
The national security strategy also paves the way for a “national register of risks”, which may contain previously classified material, to be made available to the public.
Brown added that the number of security service staff would rise to 4,000 and that there would be new measures to protect the country against cyber-attacks.
Conservative leader David Cameron described the government’s new strategy as a “talking shop”, and instead called for a US-style national security council.
“A national security strategy will only work if it is put in place and carried out properly,” he said.
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