Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to prepare for RansomWare attacks on NHS facilities.

The Department, the Health and Social Care Information Centre and strategic partners, have created the Care Computer Emergency Response Team service (CareCERT).

CareCERT was launched in September 2015 and is a centre of excellence for Cyber Security advice and Security Incident Management.

The CareCERT service is available to provide specific advice and guidance to organisations that may become affected. CareCERT maintains links with the United Kingdom National Computer Emergency Response Team and the Communications Electronic Security Group, and is able to call upon the expertise of these organisations should a larger incident be identified.

CareCERT send regular alerts and advisories to every National Health Service organisation and local authority on a range of Cyber Security issues, three of which have, to date, contained information regarding ransomware.