Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to page 92 of his Department’s Strategic Defence Review, published 2 June 2025, what progress he has made on exploring options for the protection of CNI in partnership with private-sector and allied operators.

Defence is continuing to work closely with the Cabinet Office and other Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) Lead Government Departments to deliver the Strategic Defence Review recommendations for a new deal for the protection of CNI.

Defence recognises that effective protection of the UK’s CNI requires close partnership between Government, industry and international allies. Communicating the threat and risk to the private sector is key in ensuring the protection of the UK's CNI and mitigating the impact of any potential hostile activity. Lead Government Departments for the CNI sectors maintain regular engagement with industry, while Government provides advice and support to CNI operators through the expertise of the National Technical Authorities.

We are also working across Government to take a data-driven approach to identifying the CNI most essential to the UK’s ability to sustain and respond to conflict. By contributing Defence data to the Cabinet Office's CNI Knowledge Base, we are fulfilling the commitments set out in the Resilience Action Plan and improving our understanding of the infrastructure, dependencies and vulnerabilities that would be most critical in a conflict scenario.

This analysis is informing our Home Defence planning by ensuring that we align Defence resources and capabilities to the protection of the most important infrastructure against a broad spectrum of threats, from hybrid activity through to conventional conflict. It will also help to identify what Defence could contribute to support the protection of other priority CNI that is essential to the functioning of the country.