House of Commons committee report on the UK’s Contribution to European Security

19 November 2025

The House of Commons Defence Committee has published its report,  The UK Contribution to European Security. The report, to which the HSC gave written and oral evidence, concludes that while the UK remains a leading European security actor, it urgently needs to take measures to “urgently strengthen its conventional and nuclear capabilities, improve interoperability with Allies, strengthen its defence industrial base and ensure it can defend the UK homeland and overseas territories.”

Examining the threat faced, the report quotes HSC Deputy Director Dr Rowan Allport’s assertion that “the plausible worst-case scenario for [European] NATO right now is the potential for the US to be at war with China, or at least heavily engaged in a crisis with China, and Russia comes in and tries to take advantage of that situation” – a statement also highlighted in The Times newspaper.

Other key points from the Human Security Centre’s evidence, which the report cites, include the broad nature of the UK’s contribution to European security, ranging from its nuclear deterrent to its defence industrial base, as well as the dependency on the U.S. for the supply of many critical munitions.

The committee report’s conclusions and recommendations include:

• A need to remedy the absence of a clear plan for the defence of the UK homeland and the need for a clear timetable to complete one, noting that “we are deeply concerned by reports that the UK has no [NATO] Article 3 national plan and that the work on the Home Defence Programme is still ongoing”

• A requirement for increased cross-government cooperation on homeland defence and resilience

• A requirement for “whole of society” engagement in resilience and readiness

• The creation of a post of Minister of Homeland Security “who should be responsible for delivery of the Home Defence Programme alongside the Resilience Action Plan and a public engagement strategy.”

Image: British Army soldier firing an NLAW (Source: Defence Imagery via OGL 1.0)