The Government has confirmed that a new Cyber Security and Resilience Bill will be introduced to Parliament next year.

The Bill, announced in the King’s Speech earlier this year, promises to “strengthen [the UK’s] defences and ensure that more essential digital services than ever before are protected”. According to the Government, the existing UK regulations require an “urgent update in the UK to ensure that our infrastructure and economy is not comparably more vulnerable”.

To achieve this, the Government has stated in a recent press release that the Bill will make “crucial updates to the legacy regulatory framework” by, for example:

• expanding the remit of the regulation to protect more digital services and supply chains;
• empowering regulators to ensure that cyber safety measures are being implemented, including potentially introducing cost recovery mechanisms to provide resources to regulators, and enabling them to investigate potential vulnerabilities ‘proactively’; and
• mandating increased incident reporting so as to provide the Government with better data on cyber attacks.

Further details about the Bill will be announced in due course, in advance of its introduction to Parliament in 2025. For more information, click here.