Defence Select Committee

I joined the House of Commons Defence Select Committee in 2009. The Committee appointed by the House of Commons to examine the expenditure, administration, and policy of the Ministry of Defence and its associated public bodies. The Committee usually meets once, but often twice a week when the House of Commons is sitting. This involves conducting enquiries into a wide range of issues. Witnesses, often senior members of the military, give evidence to the Committee and at the end of each enquiry, a report is published.

The Committee is currently undertaking two main enquiries, one called ‘Operations in Afghanistan’ which will consider the success of the military operation and the second ‘Ensuring success in Afghanistan’ which will look at how a political settlement might be achieved in Afghanistan and how UK Armed Forces can contribute to this. The meetings of the Committee are broadcast live through the Parliament website - http://www.parliamentlive.tv/Main/Home.aspx

More information about the work of the Committee, including reports it has published in the past and details of ongoing enquiries can be found at http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/defence-committee/

The Royal United Services Institute produces regular briefings on a wide-range of defence related topics. For more details, please visit their website http://www.rusi.org/

NATO Parliamentary Assembly

Recently I was elected to the United Kingdom Delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. More details about the UK delegation are available through this link

http://www.parliament.uk/mps-lords-and-offices/offices/delegations/nato/

The NATO Parliamentary Assembly was established in 1955. It brings together members of parliaments from all NATO member countries and some associate parliaments. The Parliamentary Assembly provides a forum for discussion on a wide variety of security, political and economic matters.

The Assembly meets as a whole twice a year. Alongside this, there are five subject related committees including Defence and Security, of which I am a member. These committees produce reports and resolutions to be discussed by the whole Assembly. For example, the Defence Committee is currently looking at the work NATO is doing in training the Afghan army and air force.

More information about the NATO Parliamentary Assembly is available at http://www.nato-pa.int/.