Select committee: Defence Committee
Conclusion 3
Fourth Report - Operation Isotrope: the use of the military to counter migrant crossings
Published 11 Mar 2022
Paragraph 52
Addressed to Ministry of Defence
Defence Committee Operation Isotrope: the use of the military to counter migrant crossings All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
A successful military strategy requires clear ends, ways and means. The ends (or in this case the objectives) are anything but. The MOD appears to regard its objective as ensuring that no migrant lands on their own terms, but the Home Office sees the objective as deterrence. Whilst these are not mutually exclusive, nor do they necessarily reinforce each other. The MoD’s objective is in any case at best incoherent, since the migrants’ over-riding aim is to land in the UK, regardless of whether or not on their own terms.
From: Defence Committee, Fourth Report - Operation Isotrope: the use of the military to counter migrant crossings (HC 1069), paragraph 52, 11 March 2022
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 19 May 2022 (deadline 11 May 2022).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government's response sets out military primacy for the Channel response as one element of wider immigration reform, notes some of the Committee's conclusions, and disagrees with others, including on the impact on naval resources.
- On the call for a published handover date, it "notes the Committee's conclusions" and says current planning is for Defence to retain primacy until January 2023, when the "operational requirement and financing arrangements will be reviewed".
- It "disagrees" with the Committee on the deployment of "scarce" naval resources, stating that Operation ISOTROPE "has no impact on the availability of Destroyers, Frigates or Batch 2 OPVs" for deployment overseas or in homeland defence.
- On funding, it states that a £50 million package has been agreed between the Treasury, Home Office and MOD to deliver military primacy until early 2023, when "the requirement and resourcing will be reviewed".
- On British shipbuilding, it "notes the Committee's recommendation" and says the National Shipbuilding Office "will seek to maximise UK content wherever possible".