Following the Security Sector Partnership Conference in December 2017, the UK’s Security and Resilience Industry Suppliers’ Community (RISC) was encouraged by the Director General of the Office for Security and Counter Terrorism (OSCT), Tom Hurd, to contribute ideas for the future evolution of the Joint Security and Resilience Centre (JSaRC).

In the subsequent submission, on behalf of RISC, ADS led work on promoting the following recommendations to reinforce that JSaRC should be widely recognised as an essential asset for public-private sector cooperation and thus secure the required resource to both embed itself within the Government framework and to expand to meet the growth of the sector:

  • Improving cross-Government coordination on security projects: Given OSCT’s central role in coordinating cross-Government security policy, JSaRC is perfectly placed to be the pivotal component in shaping future security programmes and requirements, including the coordination of security projects from across Government departments. In order to promote innovation and exploitation, JSaRC should be seen as the ‘go to’ point of contact within Government for all suppliers and academia, as well as innovators to propose creative ideas in order to address national security challenges.
  • Reviewing Commercial Arrangements in UK Security Sector: JSaRC should be tasked and resourced appropriately to take forward a project in consultation with the security sector that can identify a set of workable reforms to the UK’s commercial arrangements. Ideas to be considered might include establishing new commercial models that can be geared towards harnessing the potential of the whole supplier community, including large corporations and SMEs. In addition to the consideration of new models, it would be beneficial to both industry prosperity and aiding HMG’s national security requirements if a strategy were put in place to promote increased cooperation between Prime companies and SMEs.
  • Empowering JSaRC to implement SDSR Programmes: Pending the outcome of the current National Security Capability Review, we see benefits in JSaRC being tasked to take forward industrial and academic engagement around the programmes that were articulated within the National Security Strategy and Strategic Defence and Security Review of 2015. In particular, there is an appetite in the sector for a step-change in cooperation around delivering the industrial elements of, and academic contributions to, security and resilience programmes including aerial surveillance, radiological and nuclear detection systems at the UK border, and working with industry to strengthen the UK’s ability to disrupt cybercrime.
  • Implementing a Whole of Government Approach to the identification of UK Security Export Potential: Recognising The Department for International Trade Defence and Security Organisation’s primacy in the promotion of security exports, industry seeks a whole of government approach in identifying export potential. Additional, dedicated resources should be allocated to JSaRC so that it can help to identify UK export potential residing in its own projects, and those across the UK security and resilience sector more broadly, to then promote opportunities through DSO. Additionally, it is of critical importance that the potential strategic contribution of non-military security departments such as the Home Office, which acts as the principal department overseeing security issues such as counter terrorism and policing, is recognised in the implementation of export strategies.
  • Joint Communications Campaign: JSaRC’s efforts to communicate its activity to a greater extent from January 2018 is extremely welcome and we would recommend the allocation of additional resources that can be devoted to ensuring a higher profile for the organisation, its projects, and many emerging successes. Likewise, an effective joint mechanism to coordinate the effective dissemination of communications from JSaRC into industry and academia, and vice versa, would be welcome.
  • Coordination of R&D for National Security Purposes: There would be benefit for both Government and industry in achieving greater transparency of both Government resource and future Research and Development (R&D) security requirements. Provided additional resource, JSaRC could be tasked to take forward work on coordinating across government, and articulating, a clear picture of available resource for individual programmes and projects across the security and resilience landscape, as well as a clear idea of the Government’s intended requirements.