Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether he has had discussions with the Police Service of Northern Ireland on lessons learned from data breaches.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) is devolved and has operational independence. It is for the Northern Ireland Policing Board (NIPB) to monitor and provide oversight of PSNI performance.

The PSNI and the NIPB commissioned an independent review into the data breach and a report was published on 11 December 2023.

The Government’s focus following the data breaches of August 2023 was on providing specialist support and expertise to the PSNI in its handling of this issue. Officials in the Cabinet Office chaired regular operational meetings - initially daily - bringing together the PSNI, Government Departments and the Security Services, to ensure that their collective skills, including cyber-expertise, were brought to bear in supporting the PSNI.

The Government published on 14 December 2023 technical guidance relating to the approach to be taken by FOI practitioners across central government when a requestor asks for disclosure in a spreadsheet format.