New Lords report published, entitled ‘UK Defence Policy: From aspiration to reality?’

The Lords international relations and defence committee has published as report entitled: UK Defence Policy: From aspiration to reality?. It warns that the government review of the Independent Review and Defence Command Paper must reflect the worsening economic and conflict environment to remain accurate and relevant.

Commenting on the report, Baroness Anelay of St Johns, Chair of the International Relations and Defence Committee said:

In the months following March 2021 when the Integrated Review and the Defence Command Paper were published our Committee’s report exploring the UK’s relationship with China highlighted a number of omissions and other issues that were unclear and needed to be addressed in both documents. Now, 21 months on, the war in Ukraine and the current economic crisis present significant challenges to converting the Government’s 2021 aspirational statements into an effective and operational reality for UK defence.