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Demos Annual Security Lecture 2006

In the National Interest: Organising Government for National Security

Sir David Omand, Visiting Professor, Kings College London and former Security and Intelligence Coordinator, Cabinet Office

Wednesday 20^th December 2006, 6pm

Demos, Magdalen House, Tooley Street, SE1

The Government’s former Security and Intelligence coordinator, Sir David Omand, will tonight deliver the annual Demos Security Lecture. The lecture will consider the organisational changes required by the Government to confront the shifting national and international security environment.

Sir David will discuss how the Government can best approach organisational design for national security; what specific demands counter-terrorism has placed on the UK’s national security architecture; and how collaboration across different sectors involved in security can be sustained in the long term.

In his speech to Demos Sir David will argue for a national security strategy which will:

• Take a long term view, anticipating security risks beyond the immediate threats
• Increase the resilience of the critical national infrastructure, by collaborating across the public/private realm
• Take a more joined up approach to security across government ensuring domestic and foreign policy departments work in concert 

 To achieve this Sir David will recommend:

• A ‘National Security Committee’ in Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister
• A national security forum made up of senior figures drawn from across the political spectrum, academia and public life with expertise in security issues
• The development of a sub- committee for each major security concern chaired by the relevant Cabinet Minister to meet specific goals
• These new structures would draw support from a new Joint Staff based in the Cabinet Office

 Appointed as the first UK Security and Intelligence Coordinator in 2002, Sir David has first-hand experience of developing a national counter-terrorism strategy and building national resilience. This appointment followed a long and distinguished career: in the Ministry of Defence where he was Deputy Secretary for Policy, as Director of GCHQ and as Permanent Secretary at the Home Office. He served for 7 years on the Joint Intelligence Committee. 

The lecture will also see the launch of a major new Demos project, The Public Value of Security. Taking place over the next 10 months, this research will review whether the current national security architecture can meet the threats of the 21^st century. Using the concept of public value the project will examine ways in which national security needs to become more open and accountable. 

Charlie Edwards, who leads the security programme at Demos said:

We are delighted to have Sir David speaking at our 5^th annual security lecture. Given the Government and the Opposition’s recent security reviews it seems there is an appetite for engaging in new thinking on security issues, long the preserve of experts hidden away from the public gaze. Sir David’s lecture poses some valuable questions at a time of great uncertainty. We look forward to a stimulating discussion and working with David over the coming year.

End