Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps the Defending Democracy Taskforce (a) has taken and (b) plans to take to help tackle threats to democracy outside of election periods.

The Defending Democracy Taskforce is driving forward a programme of work to secure the democratic integrity of the UK from the full range of threats. Alongside its work to protect elections, since the General Election the Taskforce has:

• Conducted a wide-ranging review to understand how we can prevent and deter harassment and intimidation of anyone involved in our electoral institutions and processes and is now taking forward priority work to address this issue.
• Sponsored the National Cyber Security Centre to deliver an enhanced cyber security offer for elected representatives across the UK to help better protect them online.
• Concluded a comprehensive assessment of the UK’s response to Transnational Repression to understand the scale and nature of Transnational Repression in the UK, as well as Government’s response to the issue.

Engaged with international partners to share lessons learnt and expertise to help tackle similar threats to our democracies.