MPs: UK terror defence a shambles

A damning report by MPs will say Britain's defences against an 11 September- style attack are a shambles, badly funded and uncoordinated.

Police, MI5 and MI6 fail to work together effectively while local emergency defence preparations have been run down due to Government cut backs. The report will also warn that security arrangements at 161 key military targets - ranging from Royal Navy dockyards to the privatised air traffic control centre at Swanwick - are too poor to safeguard them from determined terrorists.

The highly critical findings of the Labour-dominated Defence Select Committee follow an investigation into Britain's readiness to prevent and to respond to an outrage similar to the attacks on New York and the Pentagon last September.

It was reported today that its conclusions were so severe that senior civil servants met the committee in secret last week in a failed attempt to persuade the MPs to tone down their remarks.

However, committee members felt that their findings were so shocking that they insisted on publishing them in full. The Government is expected to promise a thorough review of emergency defences when it responds in full to the report later this summer.

The committee found that responsibility for civil defence was split between myriad bodies which did not cooperate fully with each other, including police, the Ministry of Defence, intelligence and security services, private companies and local councils.

It is expected to call for a single "defence czar" to be created to improve coordination. It will call for a big increase in the MoD police budget and say that military bases need tighter security against intruders. The MPs also criticise a new civil defence funding system which has cut grants to local authorities - responsible for local civil emergency plans - from £24.5 million to £14.5 million.

They will say some councils are well prepared for a major disaster or attack but others have little idea what they would do to protect the public. The report will call for a legal duty to prepare better plans and higher funding to remedy the gap in defences.

The committee is expected to reveal that local fire brigades have radio systems which are not compatible with those used by the police and the Army, making it difficult to coordinate rescue attempts in a serious emergency.

Although the Home Office had agreed to review communications, it would take many years to replace the different systems.

Although the Government beefed up its central command centre after the fuel protests in 1999 and the floods a year later, the committee is expected to say that is not adequate. A 100-strong team of civil servants based in the Cabinet Office, the civil contingencies secretariat, did not appear determined enough to knock heads together.

Following the 11 September attacks, the Government reviewed national security and developed procedures to deal with hijacked aircraft used to attack London and key military targets. The committee is expected to call for a wider review to cope with different types of attack.