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Defence Procurement

I agree. I agree also with those who have said that proper parliamentary scrutiny could improve the procurement process. Some of the inherent flaws in that process contribute to the unfortunate outcomes to which I have referred. In 1998, the Government conducted a strategic defence review. It is broadly correct to say that there was all-party consensus on its big-picture conclusions at that time and that that has continued, but the world has changed a great deal in that time. The events of 9/11 and their aftermath mean that the world that we are looking at now, that we are planning for in the years to come and for which procurements are to be prepared, is very different. The time is now overdue for another strategic defence review. Some may groan at the thought of such a review but they have them regularly in the United States and at much shorter intervals—every four years—than in the UK. It is time that we undertook such a review again; it is overdue. Through such a review, we can decide which of the various procurement plans that are stretched out before us will be appropriate to meet the challenges that we will face. We must plan our procurement on the basis of the strategic environment that we face now and that we expect to face in the years to come. We must have a flexible response. Of course, we cannot anticipate what is around every corner, but a return to the baseline and having another look are long overdue.