Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what progress her department has made on improving cyber resilience.

Enhancing the resilience of our economy to cyber attacks is a priority for the government, and we are taking positive action.

My department published the Government Cyber Action Plan (GCAP) in January, setting out how government will improve the cyber security and resilience of public services. The GCAP is backed by over £210 million of central investment. This funding establishes the Government Cyber Unit in my department and enables investment in scalable services, support, and response capability to accelerate transformation.

The Cyber Security and Resilience Bill, which proposes new laws to improve UK cyber defences and protect essential public services, has completed Commons Committee stage and will soon proceed to Commons Report stage.

The Product Security and Telecommunications Act 2022 has improved the security of consumer ‘smart’ devices, with recent testing showing 100% compliance with new requirements for stronger password protections.

My department has recently announced the Cyber Resilience Pledge which will launch in the summer. By signing the pledge, organisations from across the economy commit to take action to improve their cyber resilience by making cyber risk a board-level priority, signing up to the National Cyber Security Centre’s (NCSC) Early Warning service, and requiring Cyber Essentials across their supply chains.