Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what discussions he has had with the Northern Ireland Executive on UK-wide civil contingency (a) planning and (b) response frameworks on cyberattacks on critical infrastructure.

Devolved Governments (DGs) have a vital role to play in our national resilience and were closely involved in the development of the Resilience Action Plan.

The UK Government is working hard to improve the cyber resilience of the UK’s Critical National Infrastructure (CNI), including by ensuring that CNI Owners and Operators are prepared to respond to, and recover from, cyber incidents through better planning and regular exercising. We work closely with the DGs to ensure appropriate resilience measures are in place and proportionate to the risks across all four Nations. Responding to a cyber incident is a cross-government responsibility with roles and responsibilities identified in the National Cyber Incident Management Framework.