UK ‘desperately exposed’ to cyber-threats and pandemics, says minister

The UK science secretary has warned Britain is “desperately exposed” to cyber-threats and the upheaval of another pandemic, claiming that national resilience suffered “catastrophically” under the previous government.

Deep public spending cuts under the austerity programme diminished the NHS and other local and national services, and hampered pandemic preparedness exercises, Peter Kyle told the Guardian, while too little was done to address rising cybersecurity risks.

Kyle, who was appointed science secretary when Labour came to power three weeks ago, said “open warfare” in the Tory ranks appeared to have prevented former ministers from working together to ensure the country was well-prepared for future threats.

“National resilience suffered terribly, catastrophically,” he said. “The open warfare of the previous government prevented any kind of progress in these areas and left our country desperately exposed not just to a future pandemic but also to cybersecurity issues.”

Renewed concern over cyber-threats to Britain prompted an abrupt change in plans for the king’s speech, with the much-anticipated AI bill being bumped out to make room for a new cyber security and resilience bill.

“When I became secretary of state, within a very short period of time, and I’m talking hours, not multiple days, I became very, very aware that there was a cybersecurity challenge that our country faced that I simply wasn’t aware of before becoming secretary of state,” Kyle said. The threat led him to put forward a request for the new CS&R bill, which had “national security priority”.

“We are preparing the [AI] bill, we are consulting on the bill and we will have the bill ready to go” he added. “We are committed to legislating for AI.”

The National Cyber Security Centre warned last week that despite making progress with government and industry, Britain was being outpaced by those seeking to attack the country. In particular, it said the “scale, pace and complexity” of threats to critical national infrastructure (CNI), such as water, power and healthcare, was rising.

Beyond ransomware attacks , the NCSC is now seeing a rise in state and state-aligned groups targeting the country’s CNI. The CS&R bill will make it harder for malicious actors to exploit weak points in CNI supply chains, the organisation said.

Kyle said further work was needed to boost the UK’s readiness for a future pandemic. The first report from the Covid inquiry, released two weeks ago, offered a damning assessment of the nation’s pandemic planning, describing it as beset with “ fatal strategic flaws ”. Little has improved since, experts suggest.

Responding to the Covid inquiry report, the head of the British Medical Association said the UK was “ still massively underprepared ” should another pandemic hit. In January, Dr Clive Dix, the former chair of the UK’s vaccine taskforce, told MPs of “a complete demise” in efforts to ensure the UK was well equipped with vaccines for the next pandemic.

“We are not in the place we need to be, to be as resilient as we should be, the Covid inquiry has laid that bare,” Kyle said. “We are picking up the pieces of that, and it’s a job we take very seriously.”

His comments come as the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, prepares to announce an anticipated £20bn hole in public finances inherited from the Tories. While Reeves is expected to approve an above-inflation pay rise for millions of public sector workers on Monday, a swathe of road and hospital projects are at risk of being delayed.

The fiscal black hole means there is no relief in sight for overseas scientists, who face steep visa fees and surcharges to work in the UK. Before the election, Dr John-Arne Røttingen, the head of the Wellcome Trust, said the next government must “ urgently lower the upfront costs ” for talented researchers, adding that some could not afford to move here because of the “tax on talent”.

Analysis from the Royal Society revealed that a researcher granted a five-year global talent visa and who has a partner and two children would face immediate fees of £20,974. Total upfront UK visa costs are 17 times higher than the international average, it said. Cancer Research UK said the immigration system was holding progress back , after its scientists and institutes were hit with a 44% rise in visa costs this year to nearly £700,000.

“I am aware of this specific challenge, but as the secretary of state I see all of the challenges and all of the potential in the round,” Kyle said. “I have to see where that fits in alongside all of the other challenges and opportunities, and where I see a need for adjustment, I’ll start making representation to the relevant departments.”