Ministers to be forced to name and shame China for cyber attacks on the UK after Government, which doesn’t want to point finger at Beijing, lost Lords battle

The House of Lords has passed an amendment to the Cyber Security and Resilience Bill requiring the Government to record foreign states targeting British networks and report the risks to Parliament. If it remains in the legislation, ministers will have to publicly identify hostile states, including China, when they are responsible for cyber-attacks.

The amendment passed by 194 votes to 155, despite Labour peers voting against it. Conservative and Crossbench supporters say greater transparency is needed; the Government has been accused of resisting the measure to preserve relations with Beijing, an allegation it has not addressed in the article. The bill now returns to the House of Commons, while a separate foreign influence registration scheme has publicly listed 20 entities to date, none from China.