Asked by: Lord Harris of Haringey (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government when they last discussed the wreck of the SS Richard Montgomery with the government of the United States.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
We have not recently discussed the issue of the SS Richard Montgomery with the US Government.
Asked by: Lord Harris of Haringey (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many cloud services contracts that were previously delivered by British cloud services providers for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office are now delivered by multinational cloud service providers; what is the value of those contracts; and what are the names of the previous providers.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has placed one contract with UK Cloud Ltd, now AWS, who host some of the FCO's digital and Consular services. No contracts are being delivered by multinational cloud service providers.
Overall expenditure over the last three financial years for the service listed above:
Financial Year 2014-15: £36,863
Financial Year 2015-16: £152,093
Financial Year 2016-17: £231,012
Asked by: Lord Harris of Haringey (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what percentage of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office's data is hosted (1) in the UK, and (2) overseas.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
All data for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO)'s corporate IT platform is hosted either in the UK or within the premises of our Diplomatic Missions. Any FCO data held off-platform is subject to Cabinet Office Security Policy Framework guidance and to the provisions of the Data Protection Act where appropriate.
Asked by: Lord Harris of Haringey (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many staff at FCO Services have been (1) dismissed or (2) disciplined in the last three years for (a) breaching security arrangements or (b) other reasons.
Answered by Baroness Anelay of St Johns
Over the last three years, one member of staff has been dismissed for breaching security regulations, and thirteen have been dismissed for other reasons. For the same period, six members of staff have been disciplined for breaching security arrangements, and thirteen have been disciplined for other reasons.Asked by: Lord Harris of Haringey (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many power failures have affected information systems at FCO Services in the last two years.
Answered by Baroness Anelay of St Johns
Since June 2013 there have been two occasions when power failures have caused information services hosted by FCO Services to become unavailable. The first event was a failure of the Hanslope Park campus electrical supply resilience on the feed from the National Grid being lost. The second occurred during maintenance work in March 2015 to replace failing components. These components were repaired as an interim step but were successfully replaced in June 2015.
Asked by: Lord Harris of Haringey (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government when information systems at FCO Services were last independently penetration tested.
Answered by Baroness Anelay of St Johns
FCO Services operates a range of security accredited information services on behalf of our clients. External penetration tests are conducted as a mandatory part of the security accreditation process. The external penetration tests are commissioned at solution deployment and then at least annually thereafter to maintain the security accreditation. The last external penetration test commissioned was completed in April 2015.
Asked by: Lord Harris of Haringey (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what arrangements are in place for assessing whether information assurance and cyber security systems in FCO Services are adequate.
Answered by Baroness Anelay of St Johns
FCO Services follows the principles set out in the Government Security Policy Framework and the Senior Information Risk Officer (SIRO) Handbook. The FCO Services appointed SIRO is a Board member supported in their role by the Head of Corporate Knowledge and Security and the Chief Information Security Office. The SIRO provides an annual report to the Chief Executive Officer and FCO Services Audit and Risk Assurance Committee on the effectiveness of information risk management arrangements. All FCO Services Directors are made accountable and responsible as Information Asset Owners, and provide quarterly assurance to the SIRO on the security of and risk to all information assets in their area of responsibility. Each Information Asset Manager is supported by a network of Information Asset Owners, and a suite of Information Management policies. Risk management of information assets and cyber security is considered at the quarterly Security Committee chaired by the CEO.
The FCO Services Cyber Security Steering Group provides assurance that IT System security is effectively managed in accordance with Communications Electronics Security Group (CESG) good practice guidelines, CESG Information Security standards, and any relevant legal and regulatory requirements. Chaired by the SIRO, it identifies and mitigates cyber security risk.
Asked by: Lord Harris of Haringey (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what representations they have made to the government of Turkey about its plans to conduct seismic surveys within the Exclusive Economic Zone of the Republic of Cyprus from 20 October to 30 December this year; and what are the implications of the actions of that government for the United Kingdom's Treaty of Guarantee obligations to the Republic of Cyprus.
Answered by Baroness Anelay of St Johns
Our Ambassador in Ankara has conveyed UK concerns to Turkey about plans to conduct commercial seismic surveys in the Republic of Cyprus’ Exclusive Economic Zone. This ongoing dispute puts at risk UN-facilitated efforts to reach a comprehensive settlement. We and our partners will continue to urge the parties to reduce tensions, and we strongly support the resumption of settlement talks. The UK’s commitments under the Treaty of Guarantee are unchanged.