CrowdStrike: IT Outage

Debate between Kirsty Blackman and Ellie Reeves

Monday 22nd July 2024 Commons Chamber

[Ellie Reeves]

I welcome the hon. Gentleman to the House, and I place on record my thanks to GP surgeries in Maidenhead, which did what they could to make sure that the disruption for patients was at a minimum. We will undertake the lessons learned exercise from this incident; I hope that offers some reassurance to his constituents, as well as the Bill that will be going through Parliament.

[Kirsty Blackman (Aberdeen North) (SNP)]

I am aware that the Minister is new to her role, so I will ask her to consider things, rather than to commit to doing things. Will she please consider continuing with the annual statement to Parliament on civil contingencies and risks, which the previous Government committed to? When she looks at the cyber-security and resilience Bill, will she consider assessing whether there is widespread use of certain software or hardware that could cause mass outages in the event that it is affected, as happened with CrowdStrike? I am not aware that we have seen an analysis of that in previous outputs by the Cabinet Office, and it would be incredibly helpful for us to be aware of where those risks are.

[Ellie Reeves]

I thank the hon. Member for those suggestions. I am very happy to consider the points that she has raised.