To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what assessment he has made of the effects on the critical infrastructure of his Department of an electromagnetic pulse strike caused (a) deliberately and (b) through solar activity. (321756)

The Department for Children, Schools and Families is able to draw on the Government’s Cyber Security Strategy of the United Kingdom, published alongside and reflected in the National Security Strategy update of June 2009, and on the advice of the Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure (CPNI) and CESG as part of its Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity planning.

It would not be in the interests of national security to provide information about specific vulnerabilities, assessments or protective measures relating to electromagnetic pulse attack.