Question

To ask the right hon. Member for Carshalton and Wallington, representing the House of Commons Commission, what steps he is taking to improve the reliability and speed of the internet and the email system used by hon. Members and their staff; and if he will make a statement.

The Digital Service is delivering a major investment programme for Parliament’s network. The programme will make improvements to Parliament’s ICT network, including internet access and email system. The delivery will address issues around speed, resilience and most importantly security when accessing internet based services. A tranche of improvements will be completed in September 2017, in particular:

• Speed of access – Network design simplification, increase in throughput of security devices and increase of internet circuit bandwidth;
• Resilience – dynamic routing with fast failover times with multiple routes out to the internet.

The programme will provide further resilience and security enhancements for the network (Campus LAN) operating within the Parliamentary estate by the end of December 2017. The final tranche in the first half of 2018 will see performance and security enhancements for the WiFi network infrastructure within the estate. The Digital Service will continue to work to improve the security and protections in place around email, which in turn supports the reliability of email by reducing the impact that malicious email can have.

The improvements are primarily focused on the reliability and security of Parliament's network. However, the changes will provide Members with a more consistent user experience and speed of access when using the network, including access to the Internet. Responsiveness of Internet sites is also dependent upon factors outside of Parliament's network.