Select committee: Defence Committee
Conclusion 9
Fourth Report - Operation Isotrope: the use of the military to counter migrant crossings
Published 11 Mar 2022
Paragraph 76
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)
The Defence budget (despite its recent uplift and multi-year commitment) is already inadequate. Adding responsibility for immigration without a further uplift in the budget takes scarce resources from an already overstretched Department. We do not understand why this operation is not being treated as a MACA request and accordingly resourced by the Home Office.
From: Defence Committee, Fourth Report - Operation Isotrope: the use of the military to counter migrant crossings (HC 1069), paragraph 76, 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".