1 Lord Purvis of Tweed debates involving the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology

Counter Disinformation Unit

Lord Purvis of Tweed Excerpts
Tuesday 18th July 2023

(9 months, 2 weeks ago)

Lords Chamber
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Viscount Camrose Portrait Viscount Camrose (Con)
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I apologise to the noble Baroness. Yes, of course I would.

Lord Purvis of Tweed Portrait Lord Purvis of Tweed (LD)
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My Lords, we went through considerable consideration of foreign state threats during the passage of the National Security Act, during which the Government did not present any information about this unit. We now have an independent reviewer of national security legislation for foreign state threats. Why is this unity not within the remit of the independent reviewer?

Viscount Camrose Portrait Viscount Camrose (Con)
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The purpose of this unit is to monitor information threats, whether state-backed or otherwise. While it would certainly engage with all the necessary other parts of government, its work is not necessarily seen as a part of that body.