Major security & defence review postponed due to pandemic

A major review into security, defence and foreign policy has been paused due to the coronavirus pandemic, the government has said.

The government announced plans to conduct the Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy in December 2019, which is heralded as “the most radical reassessment of the UK’s place in the world since the end of the Cold War”. The review promises to “cover all aspects of international policy from defence to diplomacy and development”.

Most of the review was due to be completed later this year, with recommendations implemented over several years, but it is now not expected to start until 2021.

Tobias Ellwood, the chairman of the Commons Defence Select Committee, said: “We welcome this delay of the Integrated Review. There would be no point in conducting an in-depth review of the nation’s defence and security challenges to an artificial deadline, especially at a time when Whitehall is rightly focusing on tackling coronavirus.

“We look forward to engaging with the Department when the Review restarts, with the added element of the consequences of the pandemic to be considered. We will still report in due course on the Committee’s inquiry into how Government should conduct the Review and hope that this work will inform the process in the future.”