Baroness Lloyd of Effra (Lab)

The cyber action plan is a very thorough document. It sets out a plan over many years to improve the cyber resilience of the Government and the public sector, which I think we all agree is absolutely needed. The fact that incidents are still occurring in the public sector reinforces the need to act. We will publish the cyber action plan and, as I mentioned two days ago, I will keep the Committee and the House updated on progress on that. Education is an incredibly important sector, and the Department for Education takes an active approach to supporting the sector. This includes the Cyber Security Hub, providing schools in England with guidance, while the standards for schools and colleges help institutions to understand their cyber security requirements. Colleges have been required to meet cyber essentials since 2024, with more than 80% of colleges now meeting this requirement. I come to the question of MHCLG and local government. The department is also taking meaningful steps and working with local authorities to increase their cyber defences. This includes the rollout of the cyber assessment framework for local government, which would be the equivalent to what is required in the cyber Bill, and the recently proposed revisions to the best value statutory guidance to set new expectations for local authorities on cyber resilience. That best-value duty provides an immediate and proportionate route to improving through existing governance and accountability mechanisms. In addition, MHCLG is supporting councils directly. The question of electoral infrastructure and political parties, raised in Amendments 79 and 81D, is also incredibly important, as noble Lords have set out. The Government work with the NCSC to mitigate risks there. MHCLG specifically works with local authorities to strengthen their electoral cyber resilience and ensure electoral data is adequately protected. The Joint Election Security and Preparedness Unit has responsibility for co-ordinating election security. The MHCLG digital electoral services team maintains robust incident response arrangements to protect electoral systems and citizen data. As the noble Baroness, Lady Ludford, mentioned, the NCSC also has a broad package of support for political parties, candidates and elected representatives. This includes regular engagement with parties, which can access the NCSC’s active cyber defence services, as well as NCSC providing tailored advice to parties and candidates. I have set all that out because the motivation behind bringing these matters into scope is to engender further action. I want to emphasise that further action is happening, whether or not it is within the scope of the regulatory perimeter.