Speeches by Edwards.

“Cat, earlier you discussed the need for culture change, which I agree with. How are you trying to embed a culture, not just within the Cabinet Office but throughout Whitehall, where people are encouraged to come forward and learn from near misses, rather than seeing mistakes or breaches of cyber policy as part of a bla…”

“Thank you. Would you say that every civil servant has been given guidance about how to manage cyber risks when they are working from home?”

“Thank you very much, Chair. A question has come to me while we have been discussing this. There is obviously quite a big debate about work from home and the civil service. How do you ensure that when people are working from home, the cyber defences remain robust? How do you avoid having thousands of civil servants acro…”

“That is helpful. It sounds like the outcomes of those tests are then shared throughout Whitehall, so that lessons can be learned. Is that the case?”

“So they are resource-contingent—thank you; that is helpful. One of the gaps for me was CBEST testing, which I know a bit about from my time at the Bank of England doing cyber-penetration testing with some of the very large financial companies that operate in the UK. It is a gold-standard system that allows companies to…”

“Would you say you are confident that they will be implemented at this admittedly early stage?”

“Going back to the NAO Report, paragraph 2.12 talks about the Government Security Group and Departments lacking the time and resources to improve cyber-resilience outcomes following the conclusion of the first year of GovAssure, in July last year. It mentions that in November last year, “GSG had not commissioned progres…”

“That is really comforting. Is it the case, then, that all tendering or procurement requires a robust cyber defence from the supply chain partner?”

“My question follows on from that last discussion. Obviously, the legacy systems are quite an important gap. How are you managing supply chain risk across Whitehall? That would seem to be another vulnerability.”

“That is really helpful, particularly to have that leadership right from the top within the Cabinet Office. Do you think that has permeated through all the other Departments across Whitehall?”

“That pre-empts one of my questions: what practical structures do you have in place to disseminate that kind of information? The information about the co-ordination centre is helpful. How do you ensure that information is disseminated not just to permanent secretaries, but throughout the Departments?”

“Thank you very much for coming here today. Paragraph 4.9 of the NAO Report raises concerns about Departments being reluctant to share information about their cyber incidents with other parts of Government. A common theme I am discovering with Whitehall is that GDPR is almost used as a “Computer says no” response. Obvio…”

“I do not support the amendment but will speak in favour of the Bill. As many have highlighted, there is a gap between the skills needed by employers and the skills held by the UK workforce. Skills shortage vacancies have been on the rise year after year, and the latest data shows that a third of all vacancies are due t…”

“7. What progress he has made on setting up AI growth zones across the country.”

“Rochester and Strood, positioned between London and mainland Europe, is well placed to help drive the UK’s AI economy. We have: several net zero energy projects ready to go, with further plans for a data centre and battery storage; a council that is already using AI and which created an AI accelerator programme to supp…”

“Do you have any idea, and are you able to tell us, when you may intend to reach that second phase? Nick Thomas-Symonds: The first step is the hereditary peers Bill, which we want to get on to the statute book in this parliamentary Session. We will then turn to how we take the second stage forward. However, the manifest…”

“On the economic growth priority that you mentioned, there have been reports in the press that some Ministers consider that services will be one of the most difficult areas of negotiation, but I am very conscious that that is one of our huge strengths. I think 80% of Britain’s economy is based on services. Could you tal…”

“Do you expect that the Government will be able to implement all the manifesto commitments in this area during their term? Nick Thomas-Symonds: That depends upon the progress we can make in the upper House. It is not entirely within my control.”

“Financial services are hugely important to economic growth as well. I appreciate you might not necessarily be able to outline what you are looking to see in a negotiated agreement, but can you talk a bit more about what discussions you have had with City figures and what industry wants to see from the EU-UK research? N…”

“The Government have made some manifesto commitments in respect of House of Lords reform, and some of my colleagues will pick up on the specifics of that. We are interested in your views about the strengths and weaknesses of the current House of Lords. Nick Thomas-Symonds: That is a very good opening question. I do appr…”