Cyber Security and Resilience (Network and Information Systems) Bill (Second sitting)

Debate between Allison Gardner and David Chadwick

Committee stage
Tuesday 3rd February 2026 Public Bill Committees

[David Chadwick]

Q Thank you for joining us. Reporting of several recent cyber-attacks has one thing in common: there were often insufficient security measures in place. British Airways in 2018 is just one example. Reportedly, the average tenure of a chief information security officer is 18 months. From your perspective, what do CISOs need from the Bill to help strengthen their hand when they are saying to a board, “This is what I need to do to keep our organisation secure”?

Richard Starnes: On what you say about the 18-month tenure, one of the problems is stress. A lot of CISOs are burning out and moving to companies that they consider to have boards that are more receptive to what they do for a living. Some companies get it. Some companies support the CISOs, and maybe have them reporting to a parallel to the CIO, or chief information officer. A big discussion among CISOs is that having a CISO reporting to a CIO is a conflict of interest. A CISO is essentially a governance position, so you wind up having to govern your boss, which I would submit is a bit of a challenge.

How do we help CISOs? First, with stringent application of regulatory instruments. We should also look at or discuss the idea of having C-level or board-level executives specifically liable for not doing proper risk governance of cyber-security—that is something that I think needs to be discussed. Section 172 of the Companies Act 2006 states that you must act in the best interests of your company. In this day and age, I would submit that not addressing cyber-risk is a direct attack on your bottom line.

[Dr Gardner]

Q You have answered the question I was about to ask. I may ask an addendum to that, but first I want to clarify something. If you put liability on an individual board member, that is going to cause problems. Do you think that there should be a statutory responsibility for the company to have a board member responsible for cyber-risk, and that the responsibility and accountability should sit at company level?

Richard Starnes: I think this should flow from the board to the C-level executives. Most boards have a risk committee of some sort, and I think the chair of the risk committee would be a natural place for that responsibility to sit, but there has to be somebody who is ultimately responsible. If the board does not take it seriously, the C-levels will not, and if the C-levels will not, the rest of the company will not.