Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to make additional funding available to strengthen cybersecurity in the light of the rise in "highly significant" cyber-attacks reported by the National Cyber Security Centre.

The Government is committed to strengthening cyber security across the UK, which is why the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) provides a range of tools, guidance and support to businesses to improve their cyber security. At this year's Spending Review, the government provided a real terms uplift of £0.6bn to the Single Intelligence Account, which funds the critical cybersecurity work conducted by the NCSC, in recognition of its importance.

The Security Minister was one of the ministers who wrote to chief executives and chairs of the FTSE 350 last month asking them to make cyber security a top priority, noting the need for a collective response to this threat. The CEO of NCSC warned that cyber security is now a matter of business survival and national resilience. He urged businesses to act with urgency and make cyber resilience a board-level responsibility to defend against the escalating threat.