Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Stamford)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will provide guidance on how Parliamentarians may scrutinise the visit of the National Security Advisor to Beijing, in the context of his decision not to give evidence to Parliamentary Committees.
Answered by Abena Oppong-Asare - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Government has confirmed that the National Security Adviser will attend a private session with the Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy in Parliament.
Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Stamford)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if the National Security Advisor will give evidence to a Parliamentary Committee following his meeting with the Chinese Foreign Minister on 14 July 2025.
Answered by Abena Oppong-Asare - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Government has confirmed that the National Security Adviser will attend a private session with the Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy in Parliament.
Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Stamford)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether the Prime Minister authorised the National Security Advisor to meet with the Chinese Foreign Minister in Beijing on 14 July 2025.
Answered by Abena Oppong-Asare - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The National Security Adviser discusses a wide range of national security matters with the Prime Minister. The Government does not routinely comment on the meetings of the National Security Adviser, which are often sensitive in nature.
Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Stamford)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will publish a summary of the discussions held by the National Security Advisor and Chinese Foreign Minister in Beijing on 14 July 2025.
Answered by Abena Oppong-Asare - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Government does not routinely comment on the meetings of the National Security Adviser, which are often sensitive in nature.
Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Stamford)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether he plans to reduce the number of people working (a) on national security and (b) in the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre.
Answered by Abena Oppong-Asare - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
As set out in the Plan For Change, this Government’s first duty is to make the UK safer, more secure, and resilient against growing and interconnected threats.
The Cabinet Office Permanent Secretary has announced plans to restructure and reorganise the Cabinet Office to make it more efficient and more effective. This programme is currently underway.
Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Stamford)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment the Government has made of the potential implications for his policies of the decision by the Australian government to ban DeepSeek from all government devices and systems.
Answered by Abena Oppong-Asare - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The UK government keeps new technologies under review to ensure that our existing policies and guidance are appropriate to mitigate any emerging risks. In the case of new Artificial Intelligence tools, we have a robust set of security policies in place to manage how information is handled.
The recently updated Artificial Intelligence Playbook for the UK Government outlines that only corporately assured Generative AI tools should be used to process government information. The Mobile Device Management policy mandates that any application downloaded onto government devices must first be approved by security and technology teams. Everyone who works in government is also made aware of their responsibility to safeguard any government information or data that they process, access or share.
Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Stamford)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of banning the use of the DeepSeek artificial intelligence model (a) on government devices, (b) in government buildings and (c) by government employees.
Answered by Abena Oppong-Asare - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
Everyone who works with government has a duty of confidentiality and a responsibility to safeguard any government information or data that they process, access or share, and all government departments are required to meet a range of mandatory security standards.
Government has a robust set of security policies in place to oversee how information is handled, within our buildings, on our IT and by our staff. We keep these policies under constant review to ensure they are applicable to new technologies.
In conjunction, the Government's Generative AI framework outlines that only corporately assured Generative AI tools should be used to process HMG information.
Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Stamford)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many people worked in the No. 10 foreign policy team on (a) 31 October 2024 and (b) 11 December 2024.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
For management and staffing purposes the Prime Minister’s Office is part of the Cabinet Office. All staff in the Prime Minister’s Office support the work of the Prime Minister to ensure the effective running of government.
Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Stamford)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many National Security Council meetings at Ministerial level there have been since 1 September 2023.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
It is a long-established precedent that information about the discussions that have taken place in Cabinet and its Committees, and how often they have met, is not normally shared publicly.
Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Stamford)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether Hikvision CCTV or other surveillance software or equipment from Hikvision, is used on any property owned or administered by his Department.
Answered by Michael Ellis
As has been the case under successive administrations, it is not government policy to comment on the security arrangements of government buildings. Specific details regarding the make and model of security systems are withheld on national security grounds.