Dr Ben Spencer
MP for Runnymede and Weybridge · Conservative · United Kingdom
“However, her former partner requested that the DNA sample be taken at Woodlawn medical centre, a location that was not on Cellmark’s approved list of collection sites. Despite that, the testing kit was sent there.”
“Subsequent investigations by the Department for Work and Pensions and the police confirmed what had happened. An employee of Woodlawn medical centre, Robert Patel, had conspired with Mr Brown and tampered with the DNA testing process. Both Mr Brown and Mr Patel were subsequently convicted and sentenced to prison for fraud.”
“I would like to raise a deeply troubling case that highlights serious concerns about the integrity of DNA testing within the Child Maintenance Service and questions surrounding the existing safeguards in place to protect families.”
“Most importantly, what lessons have been learned to ensure that no other parent or child has to endure the same ordeal? People need to have confidence in paternity testing, whether in child maintenance or other forensic uses. The chain of evidence needs to be secure.”
“The A244 has always had too much traffic and too many heavy goods vehicles on it. It goes through Oxshott in my constituency, and following the roadworks on the M25 and A3, increasing numbers of cars and large vehicles are using it as a shortcut between the A3 and the M25. We need that to stop.”
“I start by thanking the Chair of the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee and its entire membership for the publication of a very interesting and timely report. Business, academia and the whole tech sector needs clarity, in some ways more than anything else.”
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“Furthermore, clause 31 specifies that the Secretary of State may direct competent authorities to undertake certain activities, including mandating functions in connection with monitoring and securing compliance with relevant requirements, investigating suspected non-compliance and mitigating the effects of non-compliance on the part of regulated entities. Clauses 32 to 35 provide for the Secretary of State to issue ancillary directions to facilitate information-gathering, investigation and enforcement activities on the part of regulators. Taken together, the clauses give the Secretary of State a strong suite of powers to respond to emerging cyber-security risks. Again, I recognise the necessity of being able to respond quickly in fast-changing circumstances.”
“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 Secretary of State to update the NIS regulations through secondary legislation. Clause 30 enables the Secretary of State to impose requirements on regulated entities, which may include directions to take specific actions to increase cyber-resilience, to report on certain matters and to appoint a UK representative if the entity is based outside the UK.”
“In view of that, and the fact that codes can be revoked and reissued, can the Minister provide reassurance to regulated industries that a lead-in time will be built into any requirements to allow businesses to prepare to achieve full compliance?”
“David Cook of DLA Piper commented that, after laws come into effect, the process of businesses understanding where they need to get to “often requires a multi-year programme of reform.” ––[ Official Report, Cyber Security and Resilience (Network and Information Systems) Public Bill Committee , 3 February 2026; c. 5, Q1.] The code of practice is not envisaged to be legally binding, in the sense that a failure to comply is not of itself evidence of a failure to meet obligations under the NIS regulations or the Bill. However, clause 38 states that it would be admissible as evidence in legal proceedings so, in that sense, the code is binding in all but name.”
“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 repository of best practice, setting proportionate, consistent and effective standards for regulated industries. That will require constructive and open consultation with regulated sectors to identify the challenges facing those sectors and how best to address them. One issue that came up in oral evidence was the question of the lag between regulation making and industry adoption.”
“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 should be done only for cogent reasons. That is a pretty high bar to pass in terms of deviations. I should declare an interest as a former consultant psychiatrist and someone who operated subject to that particular code of practice. For absolute certainty, will the Minister write to the Committee and make the status very clear, along with reference to relevant case law in terms of other codes of practice? Does the clause override that jurisprudence or not? That would settle the question as the Bill goes through Parliament.”
“In view of the concerns voiced by the hon. Members for Henley and Thame and for Brecon, Radnor and Cwm Tawe, and by the shadow ministerial team, will the Minister explain why five-year intervals have been selected and whether the Government will look at this important issue again?”
“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 under those parts, I have some sympathy for amendment 26, tabled by the hon. Member for Henley and Thame, which seeks to reduce reporting intervals from five years to three. The shadow Secretary of State, my hon. Friend the Member for Hornchurch and Upminster (Julia Lopez), raised this issue on Second Reading. She suggested that annual or biannual reviews might allow for effective parliamentary scrutiny of the NIS regulations and of the Secretary of State’s exercise of powers to respond to emerging threats.”
“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” negotiations with the European Union, bringing Northern Ireland into scope of NIS2 regulations is totally off the table?”
“A report to Parliament, which may well be redacted, on the exercise of functions under part 4 will not be sufficient to ensure that this power is used proportionately. Has the Department considered introducing an obligation for the Secretary of State to report to the Intelligence and Security Committee when she exercises powers under part 4? We discussed the Chinese super-embassy earlier. Later in the Committee’s proceedings, I will talk about an Opposition new clause that would deal with that problem effectively.”
“The exercise of these powers by the Secretary of State could have far-reaching consequences for businesses, which may experience interruption to their commercial activities, as well as the potentially considerable time and expense in adhering to a request made on national security grounds. I have spoken on several occasions in the House and in this Committee about the critical risks posed to our cyber-security and national security by hostile state actors and their affiliates. It is, of course, right that the Secretary of State should have this power, but it should be used only in extremis. Like other extensive powers granted to the Secretary of State under part 3, it must be subject to oversight and guardrails.”
“Clause 43 grants the Secretary of State powers to issue directions to regulate entities where there is a risk to national security, or where an action must be taken in the interests of national security. Directions can include requirements relating to the management of systems, the yielding of information and the removal or modification of goods and services. The Secretary of State may also require a regulated entity to engage the services of a skilled person to comply with directions issued. The Secretary of State has wide discretion to dispense with providing reasons for directions or consulting with the affected parties on the basis of national security considerations. Clause 44 clarifies that the Secretary of State’s directions under part 4 prevail if there is a conflict between those directions and another statutory requirement.”
“I really do not understand the Minister’s answer. If it has not been published on national security grounds, how will we know that it has been laid? The whole thing could be entirely secret. Surely it has to go to the ISC as an accountability mechanism.”
“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 of Parliament, will be able to scrutinise them. Can the Minister confirm that?”
“I reiterate the point that these powers are necessary; however, given the potential for significant cost and administrative burden for businesses, they should be subject to contemporaneous or near-contemporaneous oversight by parliamentary authorities, observing the necessary confidentiality protocols. I also make the point that these information-gathering powers apply extraterritorially and may lead to conflict with regulated entities’ data privacy obligations in other jurisdictions. What discussions has the Secretary of State conducted with industry and law enforcement counterparts in other countries about the approach to information sharing for this purpose, and the implications for companies operating services on a cross-border basis?”
“Clause 45 gives the Secretary of State powers to require regulatory authorities to monitor and report on regulated entities’ compliance with directions given under clause 43 for reasons of national security. Clause 46 provides the Secretary of State with extensive information-gathering powers through the use of information notices to facilitate the giving of directions and monitoring of compliance with directions under clause 45(4). Clause 47 empowers the Secretary of State to conduct inspections to assess whether a regulated entity is complying with directions issued under clause 45(4). The Secretary of State may appoint a third party to conduct the inspection, and require the regulated entity to meet the costs associated with this.”
“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 to comply with a requirement under part 4. The notice must set out details of remedial steps to address the failure, as well as the financial penalty that the enforcement authority intends to impose. Clause 49 would require penalties to be set at a level that is appropriate and proportionate, with the maximum penalty being £17 million or 10% of turnover. A maximum daily penalty of £100,000 applies to ongoing breaches.”
“Can the Minister provide any update on the development of protocols between authorities to ensure that information shared is limited to that which is necessary for effective oversight and enforcement in relation to national security risks?”
“The provision also allows for the sharing of information with other UK or overseas public authorities with equivalent cyber-security or national security functions. Government amendments 23 and 24 seek to amend that clause to provide for directions and notices issued under this part to be sent by email to relevant persons who provided those contact details to regulatory authorities. Some reassurance on the extent of information sharing for businesses is delivered through provisions specifying that disclosures of information should be limited to that which is relevant and proportionate. However, those are high-level and subjective terms, open to interpretation by the authority sharing the information.”
“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 clause 55, directions to regulated entities or regulators must be laid before Parliament unless that “would be contrary to the interests of national security.” I repeat my earlier question about the ISC’s role regarding scrutiny. Clause 56 would permit the Secretary of State and regulatory authorities to share any information obtained under part 4 with each other and the NCSC.”
“That includes the foreign influence registration scheme under the National Security Act 2023, which came into effect last year. Russia and Iran were placed on an enhanced tier of the scheme, which applies to foreign powers considered to pose a risk to the UK’s safety or interests. The Government said that that was in response to those countries being identified as presenting an elevated national security risk. China was conspicuous by its absence, despite the director of GCHQ having confirmed in 2024 that her organisation devotes more resource to China than to any other single mission.”
“New clause 3 would compel the Secretary of State to review and report to Parliament on the risk to networks and information systems posed by foreign powers appearing on the register under new clause 2, with specific regard to activities undertaken from abroad and the risk posed by locations or premises controlled by those states in the United Kingdom. New clauses 13 and 15, in the name of the hon. Member for Henley and Thame, look as if they have been tabled in the same spirit of genuine concern about the risk of foreign hostile state interference and control in critical systems and supply chains. There is an established precedent in UK legislation for maintaining registers or lists of hostile state actors and other entities presenting a threat to our national security for use by Government.”
“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, agency or affiliate, on the UK in the preceding seven years. It must also include foreign powers that GCHQ has warned pose a risk to the security or resilience of the network or information systems of one or more operators of an essential service or critical suppliers.”
“Given that established and growing threat, new clause 3 would compel the Secretary of State to review, among other matters, the cyber-security risk to surrounding critical networks in the vicinity of the super-embassy site in the City of London. In the Commons debate on the embassy application in June last year, my hon. Friend the Member for Thirsk and Malton (Kevin Hollinrake) reminded the Minister for Housing and Planning that the Government’s own cyber-security experts, Innovate UK, have warned about the threat to the City of London from the embassy. My hon. Friend made specific reference to the Wapping telephone and internet exchange that would be surrounded on three sides by this new embassy—not to mention the fibre cables I referred to earlier, which carry highly sensitive information and run beneath this site.”
“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 application in the first place. The Government remain reluctant to name China as a threat to UK national security, despite the overwhelming and growing portfolio of evidence. In case the Government are still in any doubt, we need look only at the oral testimony given to this Committee by the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China for a clear picture of the role of China and its state affiliates at the forefront of the cyber-security threats to our critical sectors.”
“As I said at the start, there is simply no point in granting the Secretary of State powers to issue directions on the basis of national security if the Government are not willing to be clear-eyed about the most critical cyber-security risks to the nation. I therefore submit that the new clauses are a vital addition to the Bill to focus the attentions of the Secretary of State to ensure that her functions under part 4 are carried out in the best interests of our national security. No responsible Government would or should vote against such provisions. Parliament should make it crystal clear that the Chinese Communist party is a threat to the United Kingdom. We must support new clauses 2 and 3. Ordered, That the debate be now adjourned. — (Taiwo Owatemi.)”
“I do not want to repeat the discussion that we had a moment ago. I think it is complete lunacy to permit the building of a super-embassy—one of the biggest in the region—next to highly critical data transmission. I am also concerned by media reports that the Prime Minister’s recent visit to China was greenlighted only following the final approval of the embassy. I am deeply depressed that, following the visit, Jimmy Lai has been effectively sentenced for life. I respect the tone and constructive way in which the hon. Member for Harlow approaches this debate, but it is fair to say that the Government are sadly weak on standing up to hostile state actors such as the Chinese Communist party.”
“I am grateful to the hon. Member for giving way in this very important debate. This issue affects constituencies across the country, including mine—we have problems at Weybridge station. May I draw to her attention my new clause 69 to the Railways Bill, which sets out a requirement for an accessibility strategy that the Government have to report on? I have intervened on her now, but I hope to intervene on the Minister later for his comment on that.”
“Specifically on third-party funding, does the Minister agree that when it comes to infrastructure projects such as airport expansion, noting Heathrow’s proximity to my constituency, airports really should be a key target in terms of further funding, in order to improve accessibility on our railways?”
“The Minister knows this is coming. He has just mentioned the Railways Bill, so would he care to comment on my new clause 69, which would require the setting out of an accessible rail strategy, not only on step-free access but on lift downtime? I feel a bit guilty in a sense, because we have lifts in Weybridge in my constituency, but one of the biggest problems is that they are not functional a lot of the time, so people who are travelling play a sort of Russian roulette as to whether the lifts are going to be available, with all the disruption that follows. Could the Minister please comment on the strategy that I am proposing?”
“Many of those new regulations are necessary, but as lawmakers we should be conscious of the burden that we are placing on industries and particularly on small and medium-sized enterprises, which are the lifeblood of the UK economy and which have fewer resources to navigate complex layers of regulation. It is therefore incumbent on all of us to enact laws that are clear and capable of practical implementation.”
“Industry stakeholders have welcomed the Bill as essential for bringing the cyber rules governing critical infrastructure in line with modern threats, economic realities and technological developments, and for moving our cyber-security regulatory framework into closer alignment with international partners to ease cross-border operations for businesses that provide services overseas. In some respects, at least, the Bill identifies the right problems, but, crucially, it falls short of providing workable solutions. In embarking on our scrutiny of the Bill, the Committee should be acutely aware of the raft of digital legislation with which businesses and regulators have been asked to grapple in recent years.”
“The previous Government recognised that in their post-implementation reviews of the NIS regulations and in a subsequent series of consultations on proposals to improve the cyber-resilience of the entities that are most important to the UK economy. Those consultations included a review of information security risks relating to outsourced IT provision, data centres and organisations controlling large amounts of electrical load. The last Government’s work assessing those threats has informed this Government’s decision to bring data centres, managed service providers and large load controllers within the scope of the NIS regulations.”
“The Bill will also grant extensive powers to the Secretary of State to respond to emerging cyber-threats, including the power to bring further sectors within the scope of regulation, giving directions to regulated entities and issuing a code of practice that sets out measures for compliance with duties under the NIS regulations. Recognising the increasing role of malicious cyber-activity as a threat to our national security, part 4 will give the Secretary of State far-reaching powers to issue directions to regulated entities for reasons of national security. Covid turbocharged the digitalisation of all aspects of the economy and our daily lives, bringing new opportunities but at the same time heightening the exposure of digital systems to exploitation by malicious actors.”
“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Stringer. I thank all hon. Members on both sides of the Committee for taking part, and the officials for their work on the Committee stage of this important Bill. The Bill will significantly update and expand the Network and Information Systems Regulations 2018 by bringing new services within scope of regulation, giving sector regulators the power to designate critical suppliers, updating and expanding the reporting regime for cyber-security incidents and making significant changes to the regulatory funding model and regulators’ information-gathering and sharing powers.”
“I thank my hon. Friend for her intervention. I am reminded of the Committee’s evidence session earlier this week, in which expert after expert lined up to raise concerns around the scope of the definition. Although they acknowledged the importance of and appreciated the reasons for leaving some things to secondary legislation in a climate as fast-moving as the IT and digital sector’s, they raised concerns about the uncertainty that is coming for business and the need for extensive consultation so that businesses can feed into and have some degree of influence over the regulations that they will have to abide by.”
“In the past few weeks, reports have circulated that a Chinese state-affiliated group hacked the communications of top Downing Street officials between 2021 and 2024, yet the vital organs of our state, central Government Departments and agencies carrying out the most critical functions, are left unprotected and unaccountable for their cyber-resilience under the Bill. If we do not address these problems, we risk the Bill becoming yet another missed opportunity for the Government. These are opportunities that we can ill afford to miss if we are to safeguard our economy and our national security.”
“Uncertainty about which incidents should be reported will dramatically increase the burden on regulated entities and on regulators. All the while, institutional barriers to effective oversight and enforcement remain. The Bill fails to give the legal certainty and the proportionate framework that businesses need if we are to achieve widespread adoption and hardened cyber-resilience across the sectors that are most critical to the economy and our society. Perhaps most critically, there is little point in granting the Secretary of State extensive powers to make directions to regulated entities for national security purposes if the Government remain wilfully blind to the greatest threats to our national security.”
“How are businesses that could fall within the critical supplier designation to know what they need to do? How is the operator of an essential service to know what information it needs to pass to the regulator on businesses that it may end up regulating? It would be very helpful if the Minister could comment, even at this introductory stage, on how he envisages that balance playing out in the Bill, particularly given that so much of the detail has been left to secondary legislation. Anyway, I digress—I will get back on topic. Businesses are struggling with legal uncertainty and the increased costs of regulatory burden. Regulators in the sector lack the resources, the teeth and sometimes even the will to carry out effective oversight and enforcement of existing cyber regulation.”
“I thank the hon. Member for his point about balance. I am confident that this is an area to which the Committee will return quite a few times in our line-by-line scrutiny of the Bill, particularly clause 12, which relates to the designation of critical suppliers. Clearly the regulations need to be proportionate, but to make that judgment we will need to know exactly what the regulations are. A lot of the detail is not in the Bill and has instead been left to secondary legislation. As we heard from the experts, it is very difficult to scrutinise legislation that is mostly being left to future regulations rather than being set out in the Bill. These definitions will be critical if businesses are to have clarity as to whether they will fall within scope. I do not want to go too deeply into clause 12 now, but I see it as an exemplar.”
“Will the Minister lay out what discussions he has had with industry representatives about easing the complexity of cross-border digital service provision to ensure that the UK is a competitive and attractive place to do business?”
“Perhaps the most important aspect of the change is ensuring that serious cyber-security risks that appear within the systems of those entities are reported to the UK authorities for action. That is vital for the National Cyber Security Centre to keep abreast of emerging risks and be able to respond to them. Nevertheless, the complex maze of compliance and regulatory standards across jurisdictions is a growing challenge for businesses of all sizes and particularly for small and medium-sized enterprises. This is also a complicating factor facing UK companies when providing services abroad, particularly in the digital domain.”
“Clause 3 will amend the relevant provisions of the NIS regulations, stipulating that operators of essential services are within scope of the regulations whether or not they are operating an essential service in the UK, and regardless of jurisdiction in which they are established. Providers of public electronic communications networks and public electronic communications services are excluded from characterisation as operators of essential services, as the Minister says, to avoid duplication with their sector-specific cyber-security regime. The clause is an important provision to ensure that entities providing essential services in the UK are compliant with domestic standards.”
“Data centres are also critical to the UK’s ambition to become an AI superpower. Training artificial intelligence models relies on access to an abundance of processing capacity, or compute, located in secure data centres. In October last year, Amazon Web Services experienced a glitch in one of its US data centres, which set off a chain reaction that took down online services across the globe.”
“Clause 5 extends the scope of the regulations to data centres operated by the Government, with the exception of services provided by or on behalf of intelligence services handling classified information. Data centre infrastructure is increasingly vital to the UK’s society, economy and security. Data centres underpin nearly all aspects of our digital lives, from sending emails to booking GP appointments or ordering shopping online. Businesses of all sizes routinely process their workloads in the cloud, supported by data centres. For those reasons, data centres were designated as critical national infrastructure—CNI—in 2024. The UK digital sector, which is heavily reliant on data centres, contributed more than 7% of the UK’s total gross value added in mid-2024, growing almost three times faster than the rest of the economy.”
“Clause 4 amends the NIS regulations to bring data centres that meet certain thresholds within scope of the regs as operators of essential services. As drafted, these data centres will be regulated by DSIT and Ofcom, but the amendments moved by the Minister propose that Ofcom will be the sole regulator for the subsector. I thank him for his explanation of why he has tabled these amendments. Given the oral evidence from Ofcom and other sector regulators earlier this week regarding the challenges of recruiting skilled cyber-security staff to regulate effectively, what assessment has the Minister made of the additional regulatory burden on Ofcom of this decision and its capacity to secure adequate resources to meet it?”
“We have not seen the expansion in the UK digital and tech sector that, all things considered, given our background and where we stand in terms of our academic and business resources, we really should have seen.”
“We are getting ourselves into a very difficult situation from a resilience perspective: not only are we currently heavily reliant on US big tech, but we are not doing the work we need to do right now to support a burgeoning UK tech industry. In the UK, we have fantastic universities and businesses. We really are a centre of innovation, but the problem is that companies can really struggle to take the next step forwards. Of course, Government procurement is not the be-all and end-all—although, depending what sort of sector the company is operating in, it might be—but we are certainly not focusing enough on supporting our SME sector. The sector is really good and strong, and it has the potential to be great, but we still have not had a hyperscaler.”
“My hon. Friend will be aware that the issue regarding the bottleneck in the supply of cloud computing, in which I put data centres, compute more generally and access to large language models, in our country is very much on my mind, and we have been raising it with the Government. At the moment, I understand that around 70% of cloud services directly procured by the Government are coming from the three big US providers. I hear from UK SMEs—not just cloud providers, but SMEs of all types—all the time about the challenge that they face with Government procurement contracts to procure domestic UK-company services, whether that is central Government or otherwise.”
“I am sure that this is something that the Committee are going to come back to and explore in more detail when we discuss some of the more high-profile cyber-security impacts, particularly on Jaguar Land Rover and M&S. The hon. Member for Lichfield makes a very good point, and I do not think that this debate is settled in some ways—and I am sure we are going to come back to it quite a few times during the passing of this Bill.”