Baroness Berger (Lab)

My Lords, I will speak quickly. I was just checking my records, particularly on Amendment 167. It was just under a year ago that I completed the FT board director programme, which was specifically around cyber risk for boards. In a room of around 50 people, we had a tabletop exercise on a real-life scenario about what one should do in the event of a very serious cyber crisis and cyber risk. I was struck by a number of things. In the room were people with vast waves of expertise and experience, none of whom was a technology expert. All said that no other members of their board had attended training like this. They were there because, having completed a board director programme, it piqued their interest, as it did mine, it was freely on offer and they decided to attend. Having gone through that session, we covered things such as the regulatory experience, issues around how to challenge management in the event of one of these incidents, how you need to test organisational resilience, how you need to look at the risks involved, and how to respond decisively and to have the expertise and understanding to do so. It was very clear to me, even during that half-day exercise, that that training was not sufficient for me as a board director and member to be able to fulfil that role. Having gone through that experience, I think for many reasons that this amendment is so important to ensure that boards across this country—be they private boards, FTSE boards or boards of regulated companies—can do their jobs effectively. In this world, which is extending—I echo the points made about AI—it is even more imperative that we have this amendment to ensure that boards are able to fulfil their roles effectively.