Source · Select Committees · National Security Strategy (Joint Committee)
Recommendation 14
14
Not Addressed
The impacts of catastrophic disruption from a co-ordinated attack remain speculative, but are almost certainly...
Conclusion
The impacts of catastrophic disruption from a co-ordinated attack remain speculative, but are almost certainly highly damaging. We estimate they would include payment and supply chain failures, some degraded communications, overstretched emergency responses, and unexpected cascading issues—all at a time of crisis. We are not convinced there are currently adequate sector-by-sector assessments of reliance on subsea cables, or sufficiently detailed plans for handling cascading consequences if data rerouting stops working properly. We are pleased the Government is starting to address this, with a particular focus on the finance sector. (Conclusion, Paragraph 98)
Government response summary AI-generated
The government's response discusses escorting ships, investing in underwater drones, and the Royal Navy's exercises, which does not address the committee's conclusion regarding the impacts of catastrophic disruption or the adequacy of sector-by-sector assessments of reliance on subsea cables.
Summary of the government's response below — read the verbatim text to verify.
Government Response
Not Addressed
HM Government · verbatim extract
Not Addressed
The Government agrees with this recommendation. The UK’s critical sectors must be prepared for reasonable-worst-case subsea cable disruption events. As the Committee notes, DSIT is already working with Lead Government Departments (LGDs) to update the Government’s technical impact studies for sectors most likely to be affected by cable disruption. This includes underpinning assessments of potential impacts on telecoms and the internet, which will inform assessments of cascading impacts on other critical sectors. DSIT, working with individual LGDs, will accelerate work on these assessments, which will be used by the LGDs to develop appropriate response plans for their critical sectors. The Cabinet Office’s ‘Undersea Infrastructure Security Oversight Board’ will provide oversight of this work.
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