Proposed legislation on defence readiness and national resilience

Approximate read time: 15 minutes

The House of Lords is scheduled to consider the following question for short debate on 9 July 2026:

Lord Harris of Haringey (Labour) to ask His Majesty’s Government what progress they have made towards drafting the defence readiness bill recommended by the strategic defence review; and whether they intend for the scope of the bill to include national resilience more broadly to encompass preparations for other risks contained in the national risk register.

Lord Harris is the chair and a director of the National Preparedness Commission.^[1] He has also conducted independent reviews of London’s preparedness to respond to a major terrorist incident.^[2]

1. Key points

• The 2025 strategic defence review (SDR) recommended the government bring forward a defence readiness bill. It said such a bill should provide the government with powers to mobilise reserves and industry should crisis escalate into conflict, as well as facilitate external scrutiny of UK warfighting readiness.
• The government has not yet brought forward such a bill but has said it is working on the measure and intends to introduce a bill in the current parliament. Figures including Lord Robertson of Port Ellen (Labour), a former NATO secretary general who led the SDR, have criticised the government for not including the measure in its programme for the current session.
• Lord Harris is among those to have called for the proposed bill to cover national resilience more broadly when it is introduced. For example, he has argued the bill’s mechanisms could be used during civil emergencies not necessarily arising from hostile state action, including in response to future pandemics or extreme weather events.

2. Strategic defence review and proposals for a defence readiness bill

2.1 What did the review recommend?

The new Labour government commissioned a strategic defence review (SDR) shortly after taking office in July 2024.^[3] It described the SDR as constituting a “root and branch review of UK defence”, and asked Lord Robertson of Port Ellen (Labour), a former NATO secretary general, General Sir Richard Barrons, a former commander of the UK’s joint forces command and a former deputy chief of the defence staff, and Dr Fiona Hill, a foreign affairs specialist and former US presidential advisor, to conduct the review.

The government published the review’s findings on 2 June 2025.^[4] Among the SDR’s 62 recommendations, all of which the government accepted, the review proposed the government introduce new home defence legislation in the form of a defence readiness bill.^[5] Recommendation 28 read:

Alongside plans for defending the UK in the event of war, Defence should work across government to put in place a suite of measures that would significantly improve national readiness. Important areas of focus include:

• A new defence readiness bill that gives the government powers in reserve to respond effectively in the event of escalation towards a war involving the UK or its allies. The bill should mandate annual reporting on UK warfighting readiness to facilitate external scrutiny.
• Ensuring plans made under the home defence programme meet Defence’s needs in the event of escalation to war, including mobilisation of reserves and industry, and ensuring Defence has ready access to private-sector infrastructure for operations. This should be underpinned by legislation as necessary.
• Stepping up engagement with the strategic reserve, sustained through annual training and volunteer roles. A digitised approach to reserves management should be established by January 2027.^[6]

The SDR expanded on the case for a defence readiness bill as follows:

The government must have, if needed, the means to prepare and respond as threats to the UK or its allies escalate and—crucially—before crisis becomes war. Existing legislative frameworks lack the flexibility to facilitate this. New home defence legislation, in the form of a defence readiness bill, should give the government additional powers in reserve to support the mobilisation of industry and reserves. This could include measures to:

• Improve the preparedness of key industries, including powers to ensure sufficient supply of services, access to critical national infrastructure, and resources for Defence.
• Support the mobilisation of wider Defence, including industry and reserves.
• Improve the resilience of Defence’s warfighting infrastructure by introducing plans to mobilise private and commercial assets. [For example, the Ministry of Defence’s recent agreement with Associated British Ports widens Defence access to port facilities across the UK.]
• Ensure that the UK is ready to operate within a NATO framework.
• Enable external scrutiny of the armed forces’ warfighting readiness through annual publication of key data such as the percentage availability of all in‑service programmes, schedule data of all in-development and upgrade programmes, and a summary of assessments on programme affordability.^[7]

The SDR stated that such a bill could, for example, be used to secure alternative commercial facilities should RAF Brize Norton, the RAF’s largest station, become unavailable for operations at any time.^[8]

2.2 When does the government plan to bring forward a bill?

The government has not yet brought forward a defence readiness bill but has said it intends to introduce one later in the current parliament. This has attracted criticism from those who expected a bill in the current session.

In response to a question in the House of Lords the day after the SDR’s publication, the government initially said it would introduce a bill “some time at the beginning of 2026”.^[9] However, later the same month, Defence Minister Luke Pollard told the Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy that the bill would instead “probably” come in a later session of the current parliament.^[10] The government later added:

[The] defence readiness bill is potentially a legislative vehicle for the wider government, not just Defence. We are therefore working closely across government through the Cabinet Office-led home defence programme to shape our key requirements, and understand and identify the measures needed. This will lay the groundwork to introduce legislation when parliamentary time allows, but we do not yet have a specific timescale for when this will come before Parliament.^[11]

On 20 April 2026, in response to a parliamentary question on when the government would introduce a defence readiness bill, Mr Pollard reiterated the government was working on the measure but would not pre-empt the contents of a future King’s Speech. He said:

The government has recently introduced the Armed Forces Bill which addresses a broad range of issues across the armed forces, including readiness, such as strengthening the strategic reserve and enhancing mobilisation capabilities.

With regard to defence readiness legislation, Defence is working to develop measures ensuring readiness in the event of a crisis or war, with the intent for it to be delivered within this parliament, consulting as required.

The hon. member will be aware that governments do not pre-empt the contents of any future King’s Speech.^[12]

A week later, amid reports the bill would not feature in the May 2026 King’s Speech, Lord Robertson said in evidence to the Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy it was a “pity” the bill would not be included.^[13] This was on the basis it was a “crucial part and parcel” of the SDR’s recommendations. In a speech delivered earlier in April 2026, Lord Roberson had warned the UK’s national security was “in peril” and that the government had shown “corrosive complacency” towards defence. He said:

I spent the best part of a year working on the government’s strategic defence review and I can tell you now the blunt conclusion of all that work. We are underprepared. We are under insured. We are under attack. We are not safe […]

The strategic defence review is a detailed blueprint for what needs to be done to make the country safe. It involves a wholesale transformation of how we guarantee homeland defence and simultaneously deter any adversary from even thinking of attacking us. But it needs money to deliver it.

There is a corrosive complacency today in Britain’s political leadership. Lip service is paid to the risks, the threats, the bright red signals of danger but even a promised national conversation about defence can’t be started.^[14]

He added that an “all-of-country approach to defence” was the “only way to ensure that we are resilient against the kind of attack we face at the moment and prevent those we might face in the future”.^[15]

In line with earlier reporting, a defence readiness bill did not feature in the King’s Speech delivered on 13 May 2026. During the subsequent debate on the speech in the House of Lords, Lord Robertson said the absence of such a bill was a “major failing” of the legislative programme for the current session.^[16] The omission of the defence readiness bill from the King’s Speech was subsequently noted by a range of other members, including Baroness Antrobus (Labour), Baroness Kingsmill (Labour), Baroness Harris of Richmond (Liberal Democrat), Baroness Smith of Newnham (Liberal Democrat) and Baroness Goldie (Conservative).^[17] In response, Defence Minister Lord Coaker said he understood the points made about the bill, which was “being prepared at the moment”.^[18]

In the House of Commons, the Conservative Party tabled an amendment to the humble address following the May 2026 King’s Speech to regret both the absence of a defence readiness bill and the delay in the government’s planned defence investment plan (DIP).^[19] During the subsequent debate held on 20 May 2026, Mr Pollard responded:

[…] we are continuing to work on the defence readiness bill and it will be introduced later in this parliament, assuming that the usual processes allow. We are consulting with people, but he will know that it is a sequential bill.^[20]

The government had earlier suggested the then forthcoming DIP would enable delivery of a defence readiness bill “in due course”.^[21]

On 11 June 2026 John Healey and Al Carns resigned from their ministerial positions at the Ministry of Defence, citing the level of investment set out in the draft DIP as a reason for leaving their government posts.^[22] The government later published a revised DIP on 30 June 2026 under Mr Healey’s successor as defence secretary, Dan Jarvis.^[23]

The government recently reiterated that it “accepted the strategic defence review recommendation that we introduce a defence readiness bill”, adding that engagement across government and with industry on the contents of the proposed legislation was “under way”.^[24]

3. Calls for a combined national resilience and defence readiness bill

The National Preparedness Commission is an independent, non-political body comprising figures with experience in public life, business, academia and civil society.^[25] Chaired by Lord Harris, the commission aims to “promote policies and actions to help the UK be significantly better prepared to avoid, mitigate, respond to, and recover from major shocks, threats and challenges”.^[26]

In a debate in the House of Lords on the SDR in July 2025, Lord Harris made the case for the scope of a defence readiness bill to also cover national resilience.^[27] Lord Harris expanded on this argument in written evidence submitted to the House of Lords National Resilience Committee on behalf of the commission in March 2026. He suggested such a bill should follow the model of the Climate Change Act 2008 and implement cross-departmental legal obligations on resilience and national preparedness:

In ‘Making it happen’ [published on 29 February 2024] the commission proposed a national resilience act. This would follow the model of the Climate Change Act 2008 and would place a legal obligation on government departments and public bodies, including the devolved administrations in their areas of responsibility, to take account of and prioritise the need for preparedness and resilience in all their actions. This would require the government to report on the country’s baseline preparedness and resilience, set targets for the improvements needed, and report annually on the progress made.^[28]

Lord Harris argued the SDR’s proposal for a defence readiness bill and his commission’s earlier proposal for a national resilience act should now be combined. He added:

The government should introduce a national resilience and defence readiness bill as soon as possible in this parliament with a view to it being enacted in 2027.

This legislation would spell out the respective roles of the UK government, the devolved administrations, mayors and local authorities. It would place explicit expectations on the critical national infrastructure and on businesses more generally. It would make explicit the need for a cross-sectoral mapping of resilience in the services that are critical for society to function (essential national functions) and which need to be governed in a similar manner to critical national infrastructure. It would strengthen and rationalise the network of local resilience forums (as well as local resilience partnerships in Scotland and emergency preparedness groups in Northern Ireland) and give them new powers to engage with local businesses and the local voluntary, community and faith sectors.^[29]

As part of his argument, Lord Harris drew attention to a recommendation in the module 1 report of the UK Covid-19 Inquiry, chaired by Baroness Hallett (Crossbench), for a “UK-wide independent statutory body for whole-system civil emergency preparedness, resilience and response”.^[30] He noted the recommendation for this body was to:

[…] provide independent, strategic advice to the UK government and devolved administrations, consult with the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector at a national and local level, as well as with directors of public health, and make recommendations.^[31]

In the debate on the King’s Speech delivered in May 2026, Lord Harris drew attention to the omission of a defence readiness bill. Noting that such legislation was a “necessary part of the UK’s commitment to article 3” of the NATO treaty, which requires members to maintain sufficient resilience to withstand major shocks, he called on the government to consider his proposal:

I urge my noble friends on the front bench to use this unfortunate delay as an opportunity for the bill to have a broader focus than perhaps is suggested in the strategic defence review. Let us be clear that the nation’s resources may need to be mobilised not just in the event of hostilities but in other civil emergencies, not necessarily arising from nation state action. We will need those mechanisms, and we would need those powers, in another pandemic or to deal with extreme weather events precipitated by climate change and, indeed, many of the other acute risks listed in the national risk register.^[32]

4. Read more

• HM Government, ‘National risk register 2025 edition’, 16 January 2025; and ‘Prepare: How would you prepare for an emergency?’, accessed 3 July 2025
• QSD on ‘Civil preparedness for war’, HL Hansard, 20 April 2026, cols 71–86GC
• Fiona Hill, ‘Societal resilience and a world at war’, Brookings, 14 May 2026
• House of Lords Library, ‘King’s Speech 2026: Defence’, 7 May 2026; and ‘UK civil preparedness for war: Government strategy’, 19 March 2026
• National Preparedness Commission, ‘Scaling the whole of society approach to resilience’, 12 June 2025; ‘NPC’s written evidence on the national security strategy’, 15 October 2025; and Time to turn up the volume, 18 May 2026
• House of Lords National Resilience Committee, ‘National resilience inquiry’, accessed 3 July 2026

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Image by CC Mark Owens; UK MOD © Crown copyright 2026