Risk and Resilience: Annual Statement

Debate between Oliver Dowden and Richard Graham

Monday 4th December 2023 Commons Chamber

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

The Government have introduced an unprecedented package to address sewage discharge. On resilience more widely, we have put £150 million into the flood and coastal resilience innovation programme to ensure that, as we develop flood defences, we also look at how we protect against, for example, coastal erosion and wider risks to seawater.

[Richard Graham (Gloucester) (Con)]

I welcome this statement. Although prevention is of course vital, resilience is also about how we respond to crises and fight back. That was well illustrated in the help given by agencies during the massive recent cyber-attack on Gloucester City Council, when not only were our services restored, but our enemy was disrupted. Local authorities are a big target of hackers and ransomware seekers, so will the Deputy Prime Minister look carefully at the suggestion made by the Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy that he emulate his predecessor Oliver Letwin’s Flood Re scheme with a new “Cyber Re” to insure those who cannot be insured by the market and provide local authorities with the resilience and the finance to withstand any such attack?

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend raises a very important point. First, I pay tribute to the National Cyber Security Centre, which helps councils up and down the country deal with these cyber-attacks when they hit. I am discussing insurance with my right hon. Friend the Security Minister, and we are keeping an open mind. There are arguments for and against it, not least that we do not want to create incentives whereby local authorities and others will not undertake the necessary measures, but there may well be a case for doing so and we are continuing to explore that.

UK Telecommunications

Debate between Oliver Dowden and Richard Graham

Tuesday 14th July 2020 Commons Chamber

[Oliver Dowden]

The commitment we have made for full fibre throughout the country, with an ambitious target of 2025, will cause huge amounts of investment up and down the country, including in the hon. Lady’s constituency. In addition to that, as we seek to develop an open RAN solution, there will be opportunities for universities and others to contribute to that solution.

[Richard Graham (Gloucester) (Con)]

The Secretary of State’s announcement is a delicate balancing act between security, economics and geopolitics, and it shifts the supply of “Made in China” equipment from Huawei to “Made in China” equipment from the 25,000 Nokia and Ericsson employees there, creating a new duopoly of 5G telecoms provision until such a time as there is a credible Anglo-Saxon alternative. Will my right hon. Friend confirm that, as one of the goals in respect of leaving the EU was for a new global Britain to develop deeper relations with growth nations, including in Asia, we must continue to find space to work closely with China on issues of mutual benefit, as well as to confront her on issues in respect of which our values require it?

[Oliver Dowden]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right to distinguish between confronting on issues such as human rights and having an open commercial relationship with China, clearly subject to the rule of law. That is the approach that we continue to pursue, notwithstanding this announcement.