UK 'unprepared' for key security threats

The UK is unprepared for key threats to national security, according to a committee of Lords and MPs.

In its first report published today, the National Security Strategy (NSS) committee says key oversights include a lack of a long-term strategy over Afghanistan.

It questions why Afghanistan is not featured as part of our National Security Risk Assessment.

The committee's chair Margaret Beckett told Sky News: "The committee was concerned from the beginning that Afghanistan didn't feature in the National Security Strategy, and we were told that was because it was a current issue and the National Security Strategy was for the longer term.

"But the committee felt quite strongly that even though a date is set for the withdrawal of British troops, that doesn't mean it will cease to be a matter of national security."

The committee, which includes the former head of MI5, Baroness Manningham-Buller, also suggests a strategy to deal with the eurozone crisis is needed as "a matter of urgency".

It says the collapse of the single currency is "a plausible scenario" which could lead to "domestic and social unrest" as well as a surge of economic migrants.

As for the Arab Spring, the committee suggested the Government has been side-tracked by short-term crisis management dealing with issues like Libya and losing focus on risks over the horizon.

Mrs Beckett said: "The faster the world changes, the more necessary it is not to lose that capacity for long-term thinking. Otherwise you are just stumbling from one crisis to another without regard for where you are trying to get in the long-term. 

"Because the Government hasn't really thought through and identified the long-term goals, when something unexpected comes up like the Arab Spring, like Libya, they don't have a proper context that guides the choices."

The NSS committee also suggested the Government "reflect deeply on its defence partnership with the US".

With Washington focusing away from Europe, the committee said: "It raises fundamental questions if our pre-eminent defence and security relationship is with an ally who has interests which are increasingly divergent from our own.

"The Government needs to decide if the UK will continue to be as involved in US military action as we have in the past if the US focuses on Asia Pacific."

A UK Government spokesman said: "A strategy for Britain's long-term security and prosperity is at the heart of the Government's approach to foreign policy.

"We remain vigilant and regularly take stock of the changing global environment and threats to our security, as well as opportunities for our country to make the most of all its assets and advantages in a networked world."

The NSS committee says the UK's security strategy needs to be subject to a much wider public debate