Strengthening Community Resilience

David Reed Excerpts

Tuesday 27th October 2026 Commons Chamber

[Dan Jarvis]

My hon. Friend is right to raise his concerns in the way he has. Our telecommunications networks are a vital part of the UK’s critical national infrastructure, and our emergency response in weather-related crises supports the functioning of essential services, keeping people connected when they need it most. My hon. Friend will understand that there is an important role for the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport; I have listened carefully to his comments, and I will speak to colleagues in that Department.

[David Reed (Exmouth and Exeter East) (Con)]

The Minister will know how much I want the Government’s Be Ready campaign to succeed—I have shared my views with him at length—because the threats are real and increasing. But if the Government are going to ask people to stock up on tinned food and wind-up radios, they must be honest when we are attacked. The shadow Minister raised the case of Jaguar Land Rover, and the fact that the former Armed Forces Minister, the hon. Member for Birmingham Selly Oak (Al Carns), said at the weekend that the incident was state sponsored. That is incredibly serious, so can the Minister use this opportunity to tell the House which state was responsible?

[Dan Jarvis]

I am sorry to disappoint the hon. Member, but I am not going to use the occasion of talking about Be Ready to get into matters relating to cyber attribution, not least because those are complicated processes that need to be done in a certain way, as I know he understands. The House will be well-versed in the challenges that Jaguar Land Rover faced last year. There is a lot of work across Government to ensure that there is resilience among both the public and private sector organisations in the United Kingdom. I will have more to say about that with the launch of the national cyber action plan, which is coming later this year.