Category: 0 Reviewed

• Organisations risk fines of up to £17 million if they do not have effective cyber security measures
• Sector-specific regulators will be appointed so essential services are protected
• National Cyber Security Centre today publishes new guidance for industry

Bosses of Britain’s most critical industries are being warned to boost cyber security or face hefty fines for leaving themselves vulnerable to attack following our consultation.

Energy, transport, water and health firms could be fined up to £17million if they fail to have the most robust safeguards in place against cyber attack.

New regulators will be able to assess critical industries to make sure plans are as robust as possible.

A simple, straightforward reporting system will be set up to make it easy to report cyber breaches and IT failures so they can be quickly identified and acted upon.

This will ensure UK operators in electricity, transport, water, energy, transport, health and digital infrastructure are prepared to deal with the increasing numbers of cyber threats.

It will also cover other threats affecting IT such as power outages, hardware failures and environmental hazards.
Under the new measures recent cyber breaches such as WannaCry and high profile systems failures would be covered by the Network and Information Systems (NIS) Directive.

These incidents would have to be reported to the regulator who would assess whether appropriate security measures were in place. The regulator will have the power to issue legally-binding instructions to improve security, and – if appropriate – impose financial penalties.

Margot James, Minister for Digital and the Creative Industries, said:

Today we are setting out new and robust cyber security measures to help ensure the UK is the safest place in the world to live and be online.

We want our essential services and infrastructure to be primed and ready to tackle cyber attacks and be resilient against major disruption to services.

I encourage all public and private operators in these essential sectors to take action now and consult NCSC’s advice on how they can improve their cyber security.

The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), the UK’s centre of cyber excellence established in 2017, has today published detailed guidance on the security measures to help organisations comply. These are based around 14 key principles set out in our consultation and government response, and are aligned with existing cyber security standards.

National Cyber Security Centre CEO Ciaran Martin said:

Our new guidance will give clear advice on what organisations need to do to implement essential cyber security measures.

Network and information systems give critical support to everyday activities, so it is absolutely vital that they are as secure as possible.

The new measures follow the consultation held last year by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport seeking views from industry on how to implement the NIS Directive from 10 May 2018.

Fines would be a last resort and will not apply to operators which have assessed the risks adequately, taken appropriate security measures and engaged with regulators but still suffered an attack.

Following the consultation, incident reporting arrangements have been simplified, with operators reporting to their Competent Authority. Penalties will be fixed at a maximum of £17 million and the new legislation will be made clearer for companies to know whether they have to comply with the NIS Directive.

The NIS Directive is an important part of the Government’s five-year £1.9 billion National Cyber Security Strategy to protect the nation from cyber threats and make the UK the safest place to live and work online. It will ensure essential service operators are taking the necessary action to protect their IT systems.

Notes to editors

• For media enquiries please contact the DCMS News and Communications team on 020 7211 6000 or out of hours on 07699 751153.
• The Government response documents and list of regulators are available online.
• The 2016-2021 National Cyber Security Strategy sets out how the UK Government will deliver a UK that is secure and resilient to cyber threats; prosperous and confident in the digital world. The National Cyber Security Programme managed by the Cabinet Office coordinates the work undertaken to implement the UK’s National Cyber Security Strategy.

The new company will take over the delivery of the prison Facilities Management (FM) services previously provided by Carillion such as cleaning, reactive maintenance, landscaping and planned building repair work.

Around 1,000 staff, including 100 contractors, who were previously employed by Carillion will now move across to the new company, Gov Facility Services Limited, with their terms and conditions of employment preserved.

These services, which are provided to 52 prison establishments located across South West, South Central, Kent & Sussex, Greater London and East of England, will continue unaffected in the transfer.

Justice Secretary, David Gauke said:

We have robust contingency plans and are taking appropriate action to ensure that the prison FM services continue to operate normally.

I want to reassure staff that their jobs are secure and essential to making prisons safer and more decent.

Permanent Secretary, Richard Heaton said:

The Ministry of Justice’s (MOJ) priority is to ensure continuity of service. We are implementing our contingency plan for the prisons facilities management contracts held by Carillion.

This means the work that was undertaken by Carillion will move to a new government-owned company set up for this purpose. I’d like to thank all the Carillion staff who are moving across into the new company, and reassure them that their jobs are secure. The vital work they do to maintain and improve our prisons is greatly valued and appreciated.

The new company has already been created and will take responsibility for the prison FM services as soon as the formal transfer of staff has occurred.

FM is a critical service for Her Majesty’s Prisons and Probation Service (HMPPS) and there is an ongoing need for a continuing service.

MOJ and HMPPS will work with all relevant stakeholders to ensure a stable service which retains skilled and knowledgeable staff working on the FM contracts.

The government has been clear that its priority is to ensure the smooth running of public services. Our robust contingency planning and preparations for the transition to Gov Facility Services Limited has meant there have so far not been any disruptions to prison maintenance.

More than 93% of farmers in England signed up to the 2017 Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) have now received their payment. While the RPA continue to pay farmers, those who haven’t received their money by the end of March will be offered a bridging payment of 75% in April, Farming Minister George Eustice said today (Friday 26 January).

Payments made to date are worth more than £1.5 billion. The 79,000 farmers who have been paid include a range of claim types and sizes including cross-border, young farmer and common land claims.

Farming Minister George Eustice said:

We have made good progress towards getting payments to farmers this year with over 93 per cent now paid and we are working hard on the final seven per cent.

The burden of EU rules continues to be a barrier to some of the remaining processing so we will ensure that, as we did last year, any farmer not paid by the end of March will receive a bridging Payment in April.

As the Environment Secretary has made clear, when we leave the EU we will match the £3 billion that farmers currently receive in support from the CAP until 2022, and we intend to go on supporting farmers for years to come where the environmental benefits of that spending are clear.

From its world-renowned castles to our home-grown theatre productions, UK Government Minister Lord Bourne will see first-hand the crucial contribution the North Wales tourism and culture industries makes to the Welsh economy today (26 January).

The Minister will visit Rhyl’s Sea Quarium and attend further business meetings in other tourism destinations in North East Wales, as the latest tourism figures reveal the number of overseas visits to Wales are on the rise.

Lord Bourne said:

Tourism is big business in Wales and our outstanding attractions are regularly highlighted as some of the best places in the world to visit.

It is encouraging to see how North Wales is harnessing the appeal of its cultural and heritage attractions to benefit communities right across the country.

The visit comes as the latest tourism figures reveal there were 909,000 overseas visits to Wales from January to September last year, up 6% compared to the same time in 2016. Visitors to Wales also spent £337 million, boosting the Welsh economy.

Lord Bourne added:

Tourism is one of the UK’s most valuable export industries.

It is also a fiercely competitive global industry and these results not only demonstrate Wales’ continued ability to compete internationally for visitors, they are testament to tourism’s importance as a driver of economic growth.

ENDS