Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government how the Defending Democracy Taskforce (1) has protected, and (2) continues to protect, UK political parties.

The Defending Democracy Taskforce is an enduring Government function which seeks to reduce the risk to the UK's democratic processes, institutions and society. This includes supporting political parties and others participating in our political processes.

This work includes:

· Ahead of the last General Election, the Joint Election Preparedness Unit provided political parties with security advice and guidance, including on protective and information security which was made available on gov.uk. This guidance was jointly developed drawing on expertise from across the Government security community including the National Protective Security Authority and the National Cyber Security Centre.

· More broadly, the National Cyber Security Centre invests a significant amount of resources into defending the UK's democratic processes and improving the UK's cyber resilience, from attributing malicious cyber activity conducted by nation states through to providing bespoke advice and guidance to political parties and elected representatives.

· Protective Security advice and guidance have been provided to all MPs by the House, the police, and the Parliamentary Security Department.

The Taskforce will take every possible step to safeguard the people, processes, and institutions - including political parties - upon which our democracy relies.