House of Lords to debate national security strategy

The debate coincides with the appointment of 10 Members of the House of Lords to the new Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy on 1 February.

Two Members of the new joint committee will be speaking in the debate: Baroness Manningham-Buller (Crossbench), former director general of the Security Service; and Lord Cope of Berkeley (Conservative).

Former Conservative Defence Secretary, Lord King of Bridgwater, will open the debate. Other speakers include:

• Baroness Neville-Jones (Conservative), a former diplomat who chaired the Joint Intelligence Committee in the Cabinet Office and was political director of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
• Baroness Park of Monmouth (Conservative), a former Foreign Office diplomat who worked for the intelligence service for over 30 years.
• Baroness Hamwee (Liberal Democrat), former chair of the Greater London Assembly.
• Lord Bew (Crossbench), a politics professor at Queen’s University Belfast and chairman of the British-Irish Interparliamentary Body.
• Lord Wallace of Saltaire, a former professor of International Relations and Liberal Democrat spokesperson for Defence.

Lord Lyell and Lord Soley are also scheduled to take part in the debate. Lord West of Spithead will speak on behalf of the Government.

Further information

• List of speakers - Lords Government Whips Office (external site)
• Lords Hansard - debate transcript available approximately three hours from the start of the debate
• Alphabetical list of Members of the Lords
• Parliamentary calendar