Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the 2019 NAO report on Progress of the 2016-2021 National Cyber Security Programme, for what reasons fewer than 80 per cent of projects relating to his Department's Critical National Infrastructure objective are assessed as on track.

The National Cyber Security Programme (NCSP) supports a range of transformational initiatives driving improvements in Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) cyber security and resilience. This is only part of the substantial overall investment and activity related to improving the cyber security of CNI across Government and industry. For a range of reasons including reprioritisation and rescoping following industry engagement, a number of NCSP funded projects for CNI were assessed as off track at the 3^rd Quarter checkpoint and are currently being reviewed. The majority of projects, including those with the most significant transformational impact on our CNI, have either been delivered already or will be delivered as planned.