Asked by: Lord Strasburger (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the written evidence by the Paymaster General to the Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy, published on 3 March, which states that “since 2016 £100m of funding has focussed on building collective resilience to Russian disinformation across Europe and the Eastern Neighbourhood Region”, on what that money was spent; and what is the equivalent figure for funding resilience against Russian disinformation targeted at the UK.
Answered by Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park
The CDMD programme contributes to HMG's Russia Strategy and UK national security by supporting projects which expose and build resilience to disinformation operations associated with Russia across Europe and the Eastern Neighbourhood. The types of support given varies from mentoring with UK media organisations; consultancy on programming; funded co-productions and support for regional Russian language media initiatives. Addressing the challenge of disinformation is a whole of Government effort and draws on resources from a number of Departments with costs met through their respective budgets.
Asked by: Lord Strasburger (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what has delayed the publication of the inquiry into the leaking of confidential messages from Lord Darroch of Kew when he was UK Ambassador to the United States.
Answered by Baroness Sugg
The Metropolitan Police Service investigation is still ongoing. This is a complex, active criminal investigation and we have no information as to when it may conclude.