Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the Deputy Prime Minister's oral statement of 11 September 2023 on Security Update, Official Report, column 673, whether he has made an assessment with Cabinet colleagues of the potential merits of designating the genomics sector as Critical National Infrastructure.

The genomics sector is not currently designated as Critical National Infrastructure (CNI). There is a strict framework for classification: CNI assets and systems are those that have been assessed as having a significant and catastrophic impact to the functioning of the UK – either through the loss of life or limb, on the economy, or national security, defence or the functioning of the state – should they be disrupted or compromised. The threshold is a high bar so that resources are focused on the highest priority, and most critical, assets and systems.

There are strong and sufficient provisions protecting UK genomics databases, including through the UK Data Protection Act (2018), which delivers a data protection framework tailored to the needs of our criminal justice agencies and intelligence services. The relevant genomics data is additionally held within Secure Data Environments, affording further security protections.

As with all parts of the CNI landscape, we commit to keeping this position under review.