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The Public Administration Select Committee has rejected the Government’s response to its report on UK National Strategy and describes it as "disappointing".

The Report calls on the Government to think again about how it approaches strategy-making and restates the need to create a "community of strategists" from across Whitehall - and beyond - to provide the Government with the capacity to make National Strategy.

Comments from the Chair

Committee Chairman, Bernard Jenkin MP said:

"The central contention of our first Report is that Government has lost the capacity to think strategically. We argued that the Government needs to reclaim the art of creating "national strategy" which should encompass all areas of Government activity and not focus just on national security.

Getting strategy right matters. Failure to anticipate threats or seize our opportunities puts at risk our future prosperity, and safety."

However, the Government insists that it is right to confine strategy to the narrow context of national security, and to frame it in terms of the National Security Strategy.

The committee welcomes the undertaking by Government to review the case for stronger collaborative working in Whitehall and to report to the committee in six months time.

A continuing debate on National Strategy is clearly in the national interest and the committee will pursue opportunities to continue that discussion.

• Public Administration Select Committee
• Public Administration Committee Report: Who does UK National Strategy? Further Report with the Government Response to the Committee’s First Report of Session 2010-11