Question
In rural South Shropshire we face flooding and power cuts every year, so I welcome this campaign. However, I do not believe it has landed as the Government intended, because the strategic defence review set out a whole-of-society approach and a national conversation about the threats we face to our resilience. We have talked about the Finnish model. The Finns clearly know the threats through proximity. I believe that to get the public on side, we have to clearly set out the threats to critical national infrastructure that could close the internet down for several weeks or lead to power outages and so on. Does the Minister agree that taking that approach will help the country to prepare better?
Answer
I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for his broad welcome of the campaign. I listened very carefully to what he had to say and I do not think there is much disagreement between us. Let me say to him that the Government are constantly reviewing and updating our response to a wide range of threats and scenarios to ensure that we are prepared for every eventuality. He will know that, through the home defence programme, we have been running a variety of security and resilience exercises. There are more of those to come. That is important work, but the Be Ready campaign sits as a strand of that activity, alongside other work we are doing with other colleagues, including in the Ministry of Defence.14% vibes
Verdict: AMBER (30/100)
The reply only indirectly accepts that clearly setting out threats is useful, saying there is not much disagreement, rather than giving a clear position. It does not address critical national infrastructure, internet outages, or power outages specifically. It points instead to general preparedness work such as the Be Ready campaign and home defence exercises, so the questioner would likely need to ask again for a direct answer on threats to infrastructure.
How we got there
| Question item | Coverage | Specificity | Rationale |
|---|---|---|---|
| Does the Government agree that clearly setting out the threats to critical national infrastructure, such as prolonged internet outages or power outages, will help the country prepare better for those threats? | Partially Addressed | Hedged | The reply only implicitly agrees that clearly setting out threats helps ('I do not think there is much disagreement'), and it never addresses critical national infrastructure, internet outages, or power outages specifically. It points to the Be Ready campaign and home defence exercises as relevant activity, but these are general preparedness measures rather than a direct statement about setting out CNI threats. |