Lord Holmes of Richmond (Con)

My Lords, it is a pleasure to support these amendments. I have signed all of them, although in doing so I almost got a serious case of electronic RSI. They have the great good fortune of being clear, precise and aligned with existing regulations in other jurisdictions. As my noble friend Lady Harding has already pointed out, many businesses will have operations in multiple jurisdictions. For something as significant as reporting, why would we not follow NIS2 in this respect? The clarity of the amendments is their strength, even more so when compared with what is currently in the Bill in this respect. What we are trying to achieve from these changes is clear. The 24-hour initial reporting period makes sense: of course it does. As my noble friend Lady Harding pointed out, what one knows at that point is that something is happening and a report is made. In many ways, that is all that needs to be known and all that needs to be reported. To have a situation as currently set out in the Bill, 24 then 72, means that in that period so much would need to be known to comply with the provisions set out in the Bill that it is just not realistic. This staged approach is both clear and precise. It enables what the purpose of the Bill is all about, which is to support the individual business or entity that is under attack. Crucially, as other noble Lords have said, it puts the power in the collective. As a consequence of one attack, the collective can benefit if there is a sense of commitment to this reporting schedule. That will come only if it is in this stage 4, as clearly set out by my noble friend Lady Harding. If we want to enable businesses and other entities to really commit to this process—not just be dragged there by force of statute but have it as a means of business as usual, a real cultural change and a commitment to the positivity of this—it has to work for them. This staged process not only does that but, by aligning with NIS, stops this being yet another burden added to business: added unnecessarily and less effectively than what these amendments propose. I very much look forward to the Minister’s response.