Asked by: Baroness McIntosh of Pickering (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government when they last undertook a review of critical infrastructure, including electricity substations and their resilience to the threat of flooding; and how frequently such reviews are undertaken.
Answered by Lord True - Shadow Leader of the House of Lords
Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) in the UK, including the energy sector, is subject to thorough scrutiny and sectors need to satisfy stringent sectoral regulatory and national security requirements. Sector Security and Resilience Plans (SSRPs) are produced annually by the 13 CNI sectors, this assurance process asks Lead Government Departments to detail the activity ongoing in their sectors to improve security and resilience to a host of risks, including those from the National Security Risk Assessment such as flooding. For the energy sector specifically, the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (Ofgem) independently oversees and enforces the UK’s energy regulatory regime.
A large portion of the UK’s CNI is in private sector hands, and the Government works continuously with CNI owners and operators to support and ensure the security and resilience of their sites and systems. This approach ensures sectors prepare for a range of both malicious risks (threats) and non-malicious risks (hazards), including that of flooding.
The Environment Agency is working with national infrastructure providers and government departments to improve planning for current and future flood risks. This work forms one of the main themes within the Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management Strategy for England.
Asked by: Baroness McIntosh of Pickering (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the number of cyber attacks there have been in each of the last three years on UK companies by a hostile state; and what is their policy to prevent such attacks.
Answered by Lord True - Shadow Leader of the House of Lords
Our new National Cyber Strategy, launched in December 2021, sets out how we will ensure that the UK continues to be a leading, responsible and democratic cyber power, able to protect and promote our interests in the rapidly evolving online world. This includes our approach to making the UK more resilient to cyber attacks and countering cyber threats. It is supported by £2.6 billion of investment over three years.
Over the past three years, the National Cyber Security Centre has dealt with a total of 2158 significant cyber incidents affecting people and organisations across the UK: 658 in 2019, 723 in 2020 and 777 in 2021. The 2021 Cyber Security Breaches Survey shows that 39% of businesses identified a cyber attack in the last 12 months, 46% in 2020 and 32% in 2019. We are not in a position to be able to identify all cyber attacks against UK companies or attribute responsibility for every attack.
The UK will do what is necessary to protect ourselves through our world leading capability in this area. We are vigilant to cyber threats, wherever they come from, and ready to defend against them. We are continuing to work to make the UK more resilient to cyber threats and raise the cost for those who would do us harm.
Asked by: Baroness McIntosh of Pickering (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to apply the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland; and what assessment they have made of the implications of this application for the UK–EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement.
Answered by Lord Frost
The Government has invested substantial funding to implement the Northern Ireland Protocol in line with our current obligations and to support businesses adjusting to this change, including through the Trader Support Service and the Movement Assistance Scheme (MAS). We have already spent over £150m on these services. The forecast spend for the Trader Support Service is for £360m over the full two years to the end of 2022 and the forecast for MAS is that total spend could run to up to £150m.
The Northern Ireland Protocol is not part of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA). Nevertheless, there have been suggestions that the EU would take retaliatory actions under the TCA should the UK invoke the Article 16 safeguards. This would aggravate the problems in Northern Ireland rather than reduce them. Article 16 is a legitimate safeguard within the Protocol and we would urge the European Commission to consider the impact of such disproportionate actions.