Speeches by Spencer.

“What about the cancelled mayoral elections, such as those in Sussex and Hampshire? Do not the same arguments that the Secretary of State has made apply to those elections, or is he just afraid of our candidates, Katy Bourne and Donna Jones?”

“I confess, Mr Stringer, that I suspect I am also guilty of speaking a bit fast in our previous debates. I will do my best to slow down and speak in a lower tone, as I know that can also help, particularly with certain types of hearing impairment. To continue the theme of agile regulation, clause 29 enables the Secretar…”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Stringer. Clause 25 introduces a power for the Secretary of State to issue a statement of the Government’s strategic priorities in relation to the security and resilience of network and information systems with regard to essential activities. The statement will set …”

“Clause 36 provides that the Secretary of State may issue a code of practice for regulated entities to set out measures that they should take to demonstrate compliance with their duties under the NIS regulations, or any requirements imposed by the Secretary of State under clause 29. If done well, the code could be a rep…”

“Part 3 is a very important part of the Bill. It gives the Secretary of State a range of powers, including ones to bring additional sectors into the scope of regulation, to update the NIS regulations, to publish statements of strategic priorities for regulators and to publish codes of practice that set out cyber-securit…”

“For the sake of clarity on the legal status of the codes, I entirely agree with the Minister that it is important to get this right, and my understanding of codes of practice in a different area—statutory codes of practice relating to the Mental Health Act—is that case law says that deviation from the code of practice …”

“I think I will follow up in writing on my intervention to try to dig down into the explanation of how liability will be laid down when the client is not a regulated entity but is receiving services from regulated entities. That is an important point, because these are quite hefty fines. As my hon. Friend the Member for…”

“The Minister has mentioned business continuity plans a second time as a justification for not going into detail on this, but the whole reason for the Government bringing in the powers in clause 12, and the designation of critical suppliers, is that there was no business continuity plan in place in the example of Synnov…”

“Will the Minister talk through what the data exchange flow chart will look like? How will it work in practice? Will the OES proactively contact the regulator and say, “We have all these suppliers—go play”? Will the regulator contact the OES and say, “Give us a list of all your suppliers, and then we are going to start …”

“I will come to my speech, but as we are having a debate on this point, but does the Minister’s answer not risk a gilded defensive posture being set up by MSPs? If they list terms and conditions for the use of their services that essentially bar everything, they can say that any liability—if there is ransomware or they …”

“Clause 40 requires the Secretary of State to publish a report every five years on the operation of the NIS regulations and parts 3 and 4 of the Bill. Reports should include a review of any exercise of powers under parts 3 and 4 by the Secretary of State. Given the wide-ranging powers granted to the Secretary of State u…”

“The Minister is being generous with his time during this important debate. I was just thinking through his earlier response to the point made by my hon. Friend the Member for Bognor Regis and Littlehampton about using the cost reclaims to employ cyber-security professionals. That goes to the heart of the concerns about…”

“Okay.”

“I really think we should be very critical about this. What we are doing now is parliamentary scrutiny. There will be directions in future, which we expect to be laid, and they will also be subject to parliamentary scrutiny. Even where they are redacted because of national security concerns, somebody, or some mechanism …”

“I think the Minister is saying that there will be a parliamentary scrutiny mechanism under these powers. Is that what he is saying?”

“New clause 2 contains an obligation for the Secretary of State to establish and maintain by regulation a list of foreign powers presenting a significant cyber-security risk to the UK. The list must include states that have been confirmed by GCHQ as having perpetrated a cyber-attack, whether by a state department, agenc…”

“Clause 53 would grant the Secretary of State powers to issue directions to regulators where this is necessary for national security reasons, and to allow a reasonable period for the regulator to comply with that direction. Clause 54 provides that directions may be amended or revoked by the Secretary of State. Under cla…”

“I have two questions for the Minister. Given the impact on devolved legislation, can he confirm that the consultation will extend to devolved authorities should it impact on them? My second question is more generally on the theme of devolved authorities. Can he confirm that, as part of the publicised “reset” negotiatio…”

“Frankly, I find it astounding that, according to my understanding, in response to the planning decision being granted our security services said that they would take measures to start moving sensitive digital cables. It strikes me that a decision about sensitive digital cables should have been pertinent to the planning…”

“Clauses 48 to 52 deal with notifications and financial penalties where a regulated entity is deemed not to be compliant with directions issued by the Secretary of State under part 4. In particular, clause 48 would grant enforcement authorities powers to issue a contravention notice if they believe a person has failed t…”