Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps his Department is taking to help protect (a) private businesses and (b) public bodies from cyberattacks.

The cyber security of the UK is a priority for the Government. This year we will introduce the Cyber Security and Resilience Bill to improve UK cyber defences and better secure our essential services and the IT infrastructure they rely upon. The Government offers free guidance, tools and training to help businesses and organisations improve their cyber resilience. This includes a new Cyber Governance Code of Practice to help boards and directors manage digital risks, and the Cyber Essentials scheme which is highly effective in protecting businesses against cyber attacks. The PSTI Act, along with Codes of Practice on AI, Software and Apps, are helping protect organisations at scale by making technology secure by design.

The Government Cyber Security Strategy (2022-2030) sets a clear target for all public bodies to be resilient to known vulnerabilities and common attack methods by 2030. To date we have delivered GovAssure as our new cyber assurance regime and the Government Cyber Coordination Centre to support cross-government incident response.