UK Government Resilience Framework

Debate between Lord West of Spithead and Baroness Neville-Rolfe

Monday 4th September 2023 Lords Chamber

[Lord West of Spithead (Lab)]

My Lords, historically we have not been taking resilience seriously enough in this country—there is no doubt about it. My noble friend Lord Harris has done a lot of work in this area, and I think he should be congratulated on that. We absolutely have to have more focus. It is all very well saying that how this is organised in the Cabinet Office is an interior matter; actually, it is crucial for the nation that we get this right, that we are properly focused and that we take it as seriously as we should. Yes, there are lots of things happening, but I feel that we need to really move on this one, because resilience is probably one of the greatest threats we face to the nation.

[Baroness Neville-Rolfe (Con)]

Perhaps I can agree with the kind words about the noble Lord, Lord Harris, and the work he has done in this area and continues to do. I have very much valued his advice. I also agree that resilience is incredibly important: it is one of our ambitions to improve this. The Deputy Prime Minister has personally taken this to heart and been very engaged and the whole set-up that we now have, both on shorter-term risks and the more strategic risks, is totally different to what one would have seen five years ago.

Security of Government Devices

Debate between Lord West of Spithead and Baroness Neville-Rolfe

Tuesday 21st March 2023 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Neville-Rolfe (Con)]

I always resist commenting on individual cases. Of course, that comment does not necessarily take account of the steps we have made on briefing Ministers, including new Ministers, on security matters. The evolution of social media has been beneficial in many ways; I am sure that noble Lords use it for non-security matters, and we believe that that is perfectly all right on people’s private phones as a complement to the use of government phones for government business. We are very clear that, where people use private phones for government business because they cannot do anything else, it is important that substantive government exchanges are passed on to the private office or elsewhere, so that they are added to the public record. You have to have a balance in this system; we have to have rules which make sense and respect security but are also workable.

[Lord West of Spithead (Lab)]

My Lords, I apologise for not being here at the beginning of the Statement; I was caught up with the Intelligence and Security Committee, where, of course, we have to hand our mobile phones in because we all know how dangerous mobiles are. I know from my past experience in this arena that, despite many lessons to people, people up to the level of Prime Minister make major errors in using private phones for material that they should not. Does the Minister not agree that we have to look at private phones as well as government phones to ensure that we have the right security that we ought to have? Whenever you speak on a mobile phone, you can guarantee that someone is trying to listen to it.

Emergency Planning

Debate between Lord West of Spithead and Baroness Neville-Rolfe

Monday 20th February 2023 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Neville-Rolfe (Con)]

We certainly have a co-ordination role, especially where risks affect more than one department. The work that we have done on the national security risk assessment outlines, each time that it is done, the biggest risks that we see. Having dealt a lot with buildings, I can understand exactly what my noble friend’s concern might be, particularly in relation to schools. We are looking at the risk assessment at the moment, and we will be publishing a new national risk register this year. I will take away the point about schools that she has so helpfully raised today.

[Lord West of Spithead (Lab)]

My Lords, does the Minister agree that we should be more proactive in terms of the advice given to households for when there is a major crisis or emergency? We used to very clearly tell households about having batteries, torches, water purifiers and a wind-up radio and the frequencies to listen in on when these emergencies happened. We now have a website, but people are not told. Does the Minister believe that we should actually tell people what it would be useful to have? They do not have to have it but, my goodness me, if anything goes wrong, it is very useful to have those things.

[Baroness Neville-Rolfe (Con)]

DLUHC is working with the local resilience forums to work out what we should be doing in the light of the latest developments. I agree that the focus on the website is not always great, particularly when websites go down during emergencies, which has been my own experience. I have dealt locally with people who deal with emergencies, notably on Covid. The voluntary effort that comes forth when emergencies take place and all the good things that are done are really impressive. We have to learn from that and put that into the system, as it were, for the future. I take the point about making sure that people know, by leaflets and so on as well as by websites, what they need to do in the case of an emergency.

Intellectual Property

Debate between Lord West of Spithead and Baroness Neville-Rolfe

Tuesday 26th April 2016 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Neville-Rolfe]

On World Intellectual Property Day, I can say how important we consider design rights and other rights for small businesses. On Trunki, officials are reviewing the guidance available and we are reducing the fees. Instead of paying £1,620 for 40 designs, you will have to pay only £130 for electronic filing. This will help those who have been hit by the Trunki judgment. On the issue of the court, I am discussing with the Chancellor of the High Court whether we can give it extra resource because it is so valuable and so admired internationally.

[Lord West of Spithead (Lab)]

My Lords, the greatest theft of and threat to IP is cyberattack. The people who do this on an industrial scale are the Chinese. Have any actions been taken to stop that mass theft of IP across all our business areas?

Public Service Broadcasting

Debate between Lord West of Spithead and Baroness Neville-Rolfe

Monday 15th June 2015 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Neville-Rolfe]

My Lords, to give a constructive reply, we are keenly aware of the importance of S4C to the Welsh language and culture and to the creative economy, with programmes such as “Hinterland” going wider than Wales. We also support the World Service. The excellence of their programmes and the creative content will be considered as part of the charter review, which is getting under way and will be subject to a wide measure of consultation, covering all aspects and bringing in all groups around the country.

[Lord West of Spithead (Lab)]

My Lords, BBC Monitoring has proved crucial over the years in advising our foreign policy and military operations. Is the Minister content that there will be sufficient funding to ensure that this key capability is maintained, not least because it is part of the special relationship with the Open Source Center in the United States?

[Baroness Neville-Rolfe]

The noble Lord is right: these areas are very important. The interests concerned will be taken into account in the wide-ranging charter review once it gets under way.