Select committee: Foreign Affairs Committee
Recommendation 4
Fifth Report - Refreshing our approach? Updating the Integrated Review
Published 18 Dec 2022
Paragraph 24
Addressed to Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
Foreign Affairs Committee Update to the UK's Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
China represents an important security challenge for the UK; it is also an important partner. The Integrated Review acknowledged that the UK will need to continue to compete with China in some areas while cooperating in others. When updating the Integrated Review, the Government should address the long-term viability of this approach. The long-term goal must be to foster greater resilience and economic diversification, so that in the future the UK has more freedom to choose its actions in response to any aggression or human rights abuses by the PRC. Key to this is cooperation with key allies to improve our resilience, but also to ensure responses to hostile actions by the PRC are made multilaterally where possible. If we are more resilient to the PRC’s weaponisation of supply chains, we can be more effective on the world stage as a global player. Britain should stand absolute against interference in our own country by the PRC and this should be expressed within the IR.
From: Foreign Affairs Committee, Fifth Report - Refreshing our approach? Updating the Integrated Review (HC 882), paragraph 24, 18 December 2022
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 31 May 2023 (deadline 18 February 2023).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government says IR2023 has "considered and taken on board the proposals put forward by the FAC", agreeing with most recommendations and partially agreeing with two.
- On resilience, it agrees and points to a new National Security Council sub-committee on resilience, chaired by the Deputy Prime Minister, as the regular cross-government meeting, and a Director of Resilience in the Cabinet Office.
- On China, it partially agrees. It says it is "impossible, impractical, and unwise to sum up China in one word", such as "threat", and that it will "always put national security first" where tensions arise.
- On defence spending, it says it will maintain the 2% of GDP commitment and aim for 2.5% "as the fiscal and economic situation allows".
- On the Middle East, it partially agrees and states that the Middle East and North Africa "is not being deprioritised".