Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had with key infrastructure providers on the steps they are taking to protect themselves from cyber-attack.

Government Departments and the National Cyber Security Centre have regular discussions with key infrastructure providers on their management of cyber risk.

Ensuring the United Kingdom’s Critical National Infrastructure is secure and resilient against cyber-attack is a priority for the Government as set out in the National Cyber Security Strategy. This is supported by a significant programme of work to provide advice, guidance and support to infrastructure providers and develop effective regulatory frameworks.

The Department works continuously with national bodies to ensure that the critical information technology infrastructure used by the health and care system is secure. Earlier this month the Department requested written assurances from critical information technology asset owners on the cyber security of those assets.

Departmental officials have also met with the Senior Information Risk Owners of NHS Digital and NHS England within the last two weeks to discuss the security of the critical information technology infrastructure that they are responsible for providing to the health and social care system.