§ Mr. JenkinTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence what his policy is on defence reviews; and what further defence reviews are planned for the armed forces. [91038]
§ Mr. HoonThe Government published the results of its comprehensive Strategic Defence Review (Cm 3999) in 1998. Following the events of 11 September 2001 we launched work to ensure that our defence policies, capabilities and force structures matched the new challenges we faced. The conclusions of this work were published in the SDR New Chapter (Cm 5566) in July 2002.
In announcing the publication of the new Chapter and the allocation of increased resources to defence in the Spending Review, I said that this provided a "mandate for accelerating the modernisation and evolution of the Armed Forces" Official Report, column 462. The capabilities and force structures of the Armed Forces must continue to evolve in the direction set by the New Chapter. I intend to publish a Defence White Paper later this year. This will provide an updated statement of Defence policy and explain in detail our plans for modernising the delivery of enhanced defence capability.