Oral Answers to Questions

John Howell Excerpts

Monday 6th December 2010 Commons Chamber

The Secretary of State was asked—

[John Howell (Henley) (Con)]

2. What methodology her Department follows to determine the nature of security threats to the UK.

[Jonathan Lord (Woking) (Con)]

12. What methodology her Department follows to determine the nature of security threats to the UK.

[The Secretary of State for the Home Department (Mrs Theresa May)]

As part of the Government’s national security strategy, we conducted a national security risk assessment—the first time that a Government have undertaken a comprehensive assessment of all national security risks to the UK. The most important risks were then placed into three tiers to inform the strategic defence and security review.

[John Howell]

I thank my right hon. Friend for that answer. Does she agree that the issue is even more important today, because the recent activities of WikiLeaks have shown the need to strengthen cybersecurity measures in the UK?

[Mrs May]

My hon. Friend makes a very pertinent point. On WikiLeaks, the Prime Minister’s national security adviser has written to all Departments to ask them to look again at their information security and to provide him with assurance about the level of that information security.

My hon. Friend makes a wider point about cybersecurity. This Government recognise the importance of dealing with cybersecurity and cybercrime, which is why we focused on both in the strategic defence and security review and in the national security strategy, and over the next four years £650 million is being made available to develop a national cybersecurity programme.