Plans for an American-style national security council involving retired defence and intelligence chiefs and other acknowledged experts in their fields have been drawn up as part of a new approach to dealing with future threats and emergencies.

The group of veteran specialists would advise Gordon Brown on all aspects of national security, ranging from terrorist strikes to pandemics, The Times has learnt.

The proposal has been drafted by the Cabinet Office, which has been working on a White Paper outlining a national security strategy that it is expected will be published this week.

The Prime Minister has also been urged to form a new management structure within the Cabinet Office which would be solely responsible for implementing the country’s response to a national emergency.

At present there is concern that there are too many senior civil servants and committees focusing on all the potential threats facing this country and British interests abroad, but no individual at official level with an overall responsibility.

However, any new structure would not undermine or replace the existing Cobra system, the ad hoc emergency committee that meets whenever there is a national crisis, be it a terrorist attack, flooding, foot-and-mouth outbreak or climate change.

Mr Brown, who has been personally involved in overseeing the drafting of the White Paper, has made it clear he wants the national security strategy to focus on how the Government and all the relevant departments and agencies can help individual citizens to carry on with their normal lives as far as possible in the event of a significant emergency.

The idea of an advisory national security council, which would lean heavily on the expertise to be found in the House of Lords, where there are currently five ex-chiefs of defence staff, would mirror the type of organisations which exist in the United States.

Individuals on the advisory council could also include foreign policy experts and academic professors, all of whom would be expected to advise on the right strategy for dealing with threats against this country.

Whitehall sources said there was no need to set up a national security council within government because the Prime Minister had already formed a new Cabinet committee that embraced all the relevant areas of ministerial responsibility.

This is the Ministerial Committee on National Security, International Relations and Development (NSID), which is chaired by Mr Brown and includes the Foreign Secretary, Home Secretary, Chancellor of the Exchequer, Justice Secretary, Defence Secretary, Transport Secretary, Children, Schools and Families Secretary and the Attorney-General.

Other people, such as the Chief of Defence Staff, the chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee, the heads of the security and intelligence agencies and the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, can be invited to attend when required.

Whitehall sources said the White Paper on national security strategy would be the first attempt by a government to spell out the threats facing this country and to underline the structures being set up to cope with every type of emergency. But one official said that there was “no spare money” available to provide additional resources. The White Paper, the official said, would not be promising extra funding. Nor would there be any hint of another defence review “this side of the next election”.

The last strategic defence review was in 1998, although there was a subsequent updated version called A New Chapter, which was published in July 2002.

Any revising of the emergency-management structure inside the Cabinet Office could have resource implications. At present, there are a number of senior officials who have responsibility for advising the Prime Minister on key issues, including Simon McDonald, who advises on foreign policy and defence, Margaret Aldred on the overseas and defence secretariat, Jon Cunliffe, international economics, and Robert Hannigan, security and intelligence co-ordinator.

“But who would take charge on the official side in the event of a major disaster, it’s not really clear, and the White Paper should spell this out,” one source said.

— The Territorial Army is expected to be heavily pruned to produce a reserve force better equipped for a fighting role with the regular Army. The TA is under strength at present, with about 35,000 part-time soldiers, and this figure is likely to be reduced under a Ministry of Defence review into the reserve Forces to be published this week.

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