This Note provides background information on the Defence Reform Bill, which is due to have its second reading in the House of Lords on 10 December 2013.
Defence Reform Bill (429 KB , PDF)
This Note provides background information on the Defence Reform Bill, which is due to have its second reading in the House of Lords on 10 December 2013. It summarises the key provisions, background and proceedings in the House of Commons for each of the Bill’s three main parts. Part 1 would enable the Secretary of State to make arrangements for a company to provide defence procurement services under contract, should the Government decide to establish a government-owned contractor-operated entity. Part 2 would create a regulatory framework for single source defence contracts that are not subject to the usual legal obligation to be advertised and tendered competitively. Part 3 would implement proposals set out in the White Paper, Reserves in the Future Force 2020: Valued and Valuable.
Defence Reform Bill (429 KB , PDF)
The Financial Assistance to Ukraine Bill is a two-clause government bill that would authorise the government to provide loans and other financial assistance to Ukraine resulting from the extraordinary revenue acceleration (ERA) loans agreement made at the meeting of the G7 and the EU in June 2024. It has been designated as a money bill and it completed its House of Commons stages on 18 December 2024 with broad cross-party support.
The House of Lords committee on international relations and defence has called on the government to remain alert to emerging changes in the Arctic and to regularly assess whether its strategy towards the region is “appropriately calibrated”. In a report published in 2023, the committee suggested the Arctic was experiencing significant change and was no longer a region of low-tension. It argued the situation was critical to UK interests.
The House of Lords European Affairs Committee welcomed the EU and UK response to the war in Ukraine “in general terms”. In its January 2024 report, the committee said some areas of UK-EU cooperation had been broadly effective. The committee said the report’s aim was to consider a longer-term approach and make recommendations to strengthen the UK-EU response. It called for more formal arrangements in several security and foreign policy areas.
