Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask Her Majesty's Government on what basis they decided to allocate responsibility for parliamentary questions relating to cyber and national defence to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport; and what assessment they have made of the response of foreign governments to the UK’s inclusion of such matters in a ministerial portfolio also including sport.

DCMS is responsible for cyber security policy and works closely with other government departments responsible for delivery of the government’s National Cyber Security Strategy as well as the National Cyber Security Centre. The objectives of the National Cyber Security Strategy are divided between 5 departments. DCMS is responsible for cyber security policy, as it relates to securing the economy and society against attacks, building skills, expanding the sector, supporting innovation, science and technology. The Cabinet Office has overall responsibility for delivery of the National Cyber Security Strategy, sits on the National Security Council and is responsible for the security of government systems. The Home Office leads on cyber crime and incident response while the Ministry of Defence has overall responsibility for operational cyber capabilities. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has statutory responsibility for GCHQ and, thus, for the National Cyber Security Centre - the UK’s national technical authority for cyber security. Parliamentary questions are allocated to across departments on basis of this shared responsibility.

Internationally it is not unusual for foreign governments to divide responsibility for cyber security between departments responsible for the economy, security, defence and policing. DCMS has regular productive dialogues with many countries to advance UK interests and to share information and best practice. The inclusion of cyber in DCMS’ portfolios has never been raised as an issue for international partners.