General Elections: Subversion

(asked on 29th October 2019) - View Source

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they have taken since the 2017 General Election to prevent (1) Russian, (2) Chinese, and (3) United States, interference in future UK general elections.


Answered by
Earl Howe Portrait
Earl Howe
Deputy Leader of the House of Lords
This question was answered on 5th November 2019

The Government takes the integrity of our electoral processes extremely seriously and we are working across Government to strengthen our electoral system and defend it from interference. There is no evidence of successful foreign interventions in our elections.

In July 2019, the Cabinet Office announced the creation of the Defending Democracy programme, which has been set up to pull together existing work and expertise in this area from right across Government.

The Defending Democracy programme has been set up by the Government in order to protect and secure UK democratic processes, systems and institutions from interference including from cyber, personnel and physical threats; to strengthen the integrity of UK elections; to encourage respect for open, fair and safe democratic participation; and to promote fact-based and open discourse, including online.

The Cabinet Office has announced a range of measures to better safeguard UK elections by cracking down on intimidation, interference and disinformation. This includes commitments to launch a consultation on electoral integrity and implement a digital imprints regime for online election material.

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