UK Government has published National Security Strategy 2025: Security for the British People in a Dangerous World, which calls for a ‘new national resilience effort’. In a foreword, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer described security challenges we face as demanding ‘nothing less than national unity’.
He wrote of higher living standards as an essential national security goal. As for domestic security, threats continue to grow in their scale and complexity, he wrote: “Not just in terms of terrorism as traditionally understood, though that threat endures. He wrote of ‘strengthening our approach to the growing challenge of violence-fixated individuals and self-initiated terrorists’.
He wrote: “Since coming to office, this government has responded to the generationally high threats to our security with the biggest sustained investment in our defence since the Cold War. Yet it is also clear that to keep up with our adversaries and strengthen the NATO alliance, we must go further still. That is why, as part of this strategy, we make a historic commitment to spend five per cent of our GDP on national security by 2035.”
The document argues for harnessing ‘the nation’s productive, industrial, technological and scientific strengths more closely’ to UK national security objectives, ‘to an extent not seen since wartime’. Among the threats to domestic security named in the document are terrorism, serious organised crime, extremism and state threats. On terrorism, the Strategy states that the UK has one of the ‘best-regarded domestic security and counterterrorism systems in the world, disrupting 43 late-stage terrorist attack plots between 2017 and 2024’. Under ‘confrontation’, Russia is singled out, while China and Iran, and North Korea, are also named.
As for background, the Strategy says that ‘we are entering a new era that will be characterised by radical uncertainty’ and that ‘threats to the homeland from state actors are increasing’, whether in the physical or cyber worlds. The Strategy adds: “Adversaries threaten societal cohesion and seek to erode public trust through the spread of disinformation, malign use of social media and stoking tensions between generations, genders and ethnic groups. Meanwhile, critical national infrastructure – including undersea cables, energy pipelines, transportation and logistics hubs – will continue to be a target.”
The Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025, which recently became law, more commonly known as Martyn’s Law, ‘will improve public safety and ensure we embed the lessons from the terrible Manchester Arena attack’ of 2017, the Strategy says. It also mentions the ‘awful attack in Southport’ of July 2024; and ‘tech-enabled harms in the online space’. Despite the Online Safety Act 2023, the document admits to ‘significant challenges around tackling other violent and extremist content online’.
You can read the 55-page document at gov.uk. It follows the Strategic Defence Review, as featured in the July edition of Professional Security Magazine.
Comments
Chair of the parliamentary Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy, the Labour MP Matt Western, welcomed the strategy. He said: “It seeks to provide a wide-ranging assessment across defence and security, critical infrastructure, advanced technology, soft power, industry and trade – to name just a few of the topics it covers. Security is no longer something that happens ‘over there’ – it is an increasingly tangible feature of our lives. The Government notes that “for the first time in many years, we have to actively prepare for the possibility of the UK homeland coming under direct threat”, while addressing wider issues around international competition, technology and climate change.
“This requires a whole-of-society response. The strategy envisions a “new national resilience effort”, bringing the UK towards spending 5pc of GDP on defence and security. This would require a major cultural shift, and I look forward to examining the Government’s plans to achieve this. I am also pleased the Government highlights the threats to undersea internet cables. Our ongoing inquiry is examining the extensive vulnerabilities across our subsea infrastructure, and how the Government can improve protections.
“However, there are a lot of strategies contained within this strategy; focusing on delivery will be key. Meanwhile, the Government has not provided many details about the trade-offs it will likely need to make to reach its goals. Its position on China is particularly unclear. My Committee will examine the Government’s new approach closely, and I look forward to probing these issues in forthcoming evidence sessions.”
At the defence and security trade association ADS, Jon Gray, Director for Security and Resilience also welcomed the release. He said: “The strategy recognises industry’s centrality to our national security and offers a hard-edged assessment of how to secure our national interests. This publication provides a clear strategic framework, but not a tactical plan of action. ADS will seek to work closely with government to ensure that the full contribution of the UK security and resilience sector is now harnessed to operationalise this strategy.”
