GCHQ: Amazon Web Services

(asked on 15th November 2021) - View Source

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, with reference to the Court of Justice of the European Union's July 2020 Schrems II judgement and the recently reported cloud computing contract between Amazon Web Services and GCHQ, what steps she has taken to ensure that data which that company will hold as part of that agreement will not be accessed by US authorities without the knowledge of UK citizens or the Government.


Answered by
Elizabeth Truss Portrait
Elizabeth Truss
This question was answered on 24th November 2021

The national security community does not routinely release details of the technology partnerships it enters into. Releasing details concerning national security technology can have significant security implications as would be the case in this scenario. Any contract can be fully scrutinised through the Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament.

The US are not involved in decisions about the technology we use in our infrastructure. We have a long-standing, 75-year intelligence relationship with the United States, which is invaluable to each country's national security. The alliance has clear guidelines for how we share communication, translation, analysis, and code breaking information, and has helped protect our countries and allies for decades. Any move to cloud does not change this agreement.

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