Cyber Security and Resilience (Network and Information Systems) Bill

Debate between Baroness Ludford and Baroness Lloyd of Effra

Committee stage
Tuesday 1st September 2026 Grand Committee

[Baroness Lloyd of Effra (Lab)]

The content of the statement of strategic priorities will be subject to consultation and we will be working with regulators on that. It could include specific risks, whether from quantum or from fraud. What I do not want to do right now is to commit that it will include that, because we are going through a process.

[Baroness Ludford (LD)]

My Lords, I thank the Minister for her reply. Her last words gave me a little bit more hope than the rest of her response, to be honest, when she said that the statement of strategic priorities could include specific risks, because it seemed to me that she was otherwise being a bit generic and unspecific—almost above the fray. When I came in on a previous group—and other noble Lords are much more knowledgeable and expert in this field than I am—I picked up some frustration that the feedback from the Government and from the Minister today was a bit vague and not very responsive. All this is happening out there; there are huge cyber threats and there is a feeling that the Government are not really getting to grips with the actualité quite as much as they might.

I understand that the Minister might not be able to say now what will be in the statement of strategic priorities, but what we are searching for is that it will grapple with real problems out there in the economy, in society. I must admit that Amendment 82 from the noble Lord, Lord Ravensdale, on post-quantum cryptography, is somewhat above my pay grade. I wish I was more knowledgeable, but I ain’t. But I understand what he is saying, how real this is: the threat is out there. You just have to read newspapers to get the drift of what is happening. I mentioned that fraud is nearly half of all crime, so these are big issues. I think that what we want from the Government is a feeling that they get it, that there is going to be specificity in the way that they are going to implement this Bill and that they are really going to be on the case of these big threats. The Minister’s last words were a bit more encouraging than some of the rest of what she has been saying. That said, I am sure we will come back to some of these issues on Report, but I beg leave to withdraw my amendment.