July 17th 2024
New Bills outlined in the King’s Speech aim to improve digital public services and tackle cyber security.
Digital information and cyber security feature strongly in the new Government’s legislative programme and could have a significant impact on the social care sector including on IT suppliers.
While details are still to be developed, the Government has said it will introduce the Digital Information and Smart Data Bill, and the Cyber Security and Resilience Bill.
The briefing notes which accompanied the King’s Speech on 17 July 2024 provide the following key information:
Digital Information and Smart Data Bill
The Government wants to ensure we harness the power of data for economic growth, to support a modern digital government, and to improve people’s lives.
The Bill will improve people’s lives and life chances. The Bill will enable more and better digital public services. By making changes to the Digital Economy Act we will help the Government share data about businesses that use public services. We will move to an electronic system for the registration of births and deaths. And we will apply information standards to IT suppliers in the health and social care system.
Cyber Security and Resilience Bill
Our digital economy is increasingly being attacked by cyber criminals and state actors, affecting essential public services and infrastructure. In the last 18 months, our hospitals, universities, local authorities, democratic institutions and government departments have been targeted in cyber attacks.
Our essential services are vulnerable to hostile actors and recent cyber attacks affecting the NHS and Ministry of Defence show the impacts can be severe. We need to take swift action to address vulnerabilities and protect our digital economy to deliver growth. The Bill will strengthen the UK’s cyber defences, ensure that critical infrastructure and the digital services that companies rely on are secure.
The Bill will strengthen our defences and ensure that more essential digital services than ever before are protected, for example by expanding the remit of the existing regulation, putting regulators on a stronger footing, and increasing reporting requirements to build a better picture in government of cyber threats.
The existing UK regulations reflect law inherited from the EU and are the UK’s only cross-sector cyber security legislation. They have now been superseded in the EU and require urgent update in the UK to ensure that our infrastructure and economy is not comparably more vulnerable.
The Bill will make crucial updates to the legacy regulatory framework by:
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- expanding the remit of the regulation to protect more digital services and supply chains. These are an increasingly attractive threat vector for attackers. This Bill will fill an immediate gap in our defences and prevent similar attacks experienced by critical public services in the UK, such as the recent ransomware attack impacting London hospitals.
- putting regulators on a strong footing to ensure essential cyber safety measures are being implemented. This would include potential cost recovery mechanisms to provide resources to regulators and providing powers to proactively investigate potential vulnerabilities.
- mandating increased incident reporting to give government better data on cyber attacks, including where a company has been held to ransom – this will improve our understanding of the threats and alert us to potential attacks by expanding the type and nature of incidents that regulated entities must report.
The Bills will be led by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology.
Digital Care Hub looks forward to working with DSIT and other sector leaders to ensure that policy developments support and improve care providers’ safe use of digital technical technology.
Related links
Background briefing notes for King’s Speech
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