Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what criteria they use to determine whether another nation state (1) is conducting, or (2) is guilty of, an act of hostility towards the UK.

Hostile activity can take many forms, including disinformation, cyber attacks and other hybrid methods. We know that certain states routinely use these as foreign policy tools.

It is absolutely unacceptable for any foreign government to seek to undermine the UK’s national security, the integrity of our democracy, public safety, reputation or economic prosperity. The government remains committed to securing the UK against all forms of hostile activity orchestrated by foreign states.

HM Government has acted to protect the UK and respond to the threat, including taking steps as part of the Defending Democracy programme, and through the creation of the National Cyber Security Centre and Joint State Threats Assessment Team. This approach allows us to identify, assess and, where necessary, respond to hostile activity; as can be seen from HM Government's response to the Salisbury novichok poisoning and the public attribution of the WannaCry, NotPetya and Cloudhopper cyber incidents.