Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask His Majesty's Government (1) what steps they will take, and (2) what resources they will deploy, to assist academics dependent on the British Library for their research and scholarly activities after the recent ransomware attack.

Staff at the British Library are working hard to provide researchers, as far as possible, with alternative means to access the material they need during this period of disruption. The Library’s physical sites remain open to the public and are offering a range of services, including access to the reading room for personal study, some limited ordering of items for manual collection, exhibitions, learning events, business support, and on-site retail. Reference services and curatorial staff are working with individual researchers and academics to support specific enquiries as far as possible including, where appropriate, by directing them to other sources of research material held by other libraries and knowledge institutions. Details of what the public can access are available via the British Library’s social media channels.