Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the oral contribution by the Minister for Security on 1 November 2022, Official Report column 791, what progress her Department has made on establishing a taskforce on national security and safeguarding democracy; and if the Minister for Security will meet with the hon. Member for Batley and Spen to discuss that matter.

It has become increasingly apparent that the threats to our democratic institutions and wider society are growing, both in depth and complexity, and at pace. As a result, on 1 November, the Security Minister announced to Parliament that the Prime Minister had asked him to lead a taskforce to drive forward work to protect UK democratic processes

In the time since, the Security Minister has established the new Defending Democracy Taskforce, with the first meeting taking place on 28 November 2022. The Taskforce aims to reduce the risk to the UK’s democratic processes, institutions, and society, and ensure that these are secure and resilient to threats of foreign interference. The Taskforce brings together the many structures both inside and outside of Government. We are particularly committed to the Taskforce working across government and with Parliament, the UK Intelligence Community, the devolved administrations, academics, and the private sector.

This Taskforce has a mandate to look at the full range of threats facing our democratic institutions and how we build further resilience to safeguard them against physical, personnel and cyber threats.

The offices for the Security Minister and the hon. Member for Batley and Spen are engaging directly to schedule a meeting in the New Year.