The 'Missing Links' in SDSR Financing: Organised Crime, Migration and Diplomacy

The government is now preparing its latest National Security Strategy (NSS) and Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR), intended to ensure an integrated approach across Government for responding to potential future security risks to the UK.

Both reviews will draw on the recently completed National Security Risk Assessment, which has analysed the impact and probability of a wide range of risks and potential hazards facing the country. Both the NSS and SDSR will be published by the end of the year.

In advance of the completion of these strategic reviews, the Treasury has confirmed budget allocations for some – but not all – of the elements of defence and security provision. The Government is now committed to annual real-term increases in spending on defence and international development until the end of the decade (to approximately £38 billion and £15 billion respectively).

It has also promised to protect counter-terrorism spending (at £2 billion), and seems set to protect the real-terms budget of the security and intelligence agencies (SIAs). Together, these ring fences guarantee some £56 billion of annual spending by 2019/20, helping to ensure that this year’s SDSR, in these areas, can focus on ensuring that this money is spent as effectively and efficiently as possible in support of national objectives.

About the Author

Professor Malcolm Chalmers is Research Director and Director, UK Defence Policy at RUSI.