Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Britain’s domestic security agency briefed senior executives on declassified intelligence on Monday, as part of a new government initiative to deepen co-operation with business on countering threats to national security.
Officials described it as a “first of its kind” briefing involving the Security Service, also known as MI5, and almost a dozen companies and trade bodies in the “most strategically important” sectors of the UK economy, including artificial intelligence, communications and defence.
Attendees at the first meeting of the economic security public-private forum at the Cabinet Office were given a presentation by one of the most senior officials at the National Protective Security Authority, a branch of MI5 established earlier this year.
The forum was chaired by deputy prime minister Oliver Dowden alongside business secretary Kemi Badenoch with senior executives from Babcock, BlueSkeye AI, Vodafone, Rio Tinto, BT, ARM, Tesco and EY among those present.
The briefing included topics ranging from the diverse threats from hostile states, including their involvement in a growing number of operations focused on intellectual property theft, as well as the risks posed by terrorist organisations.
Dowden told the Financial Times in a statement that economic security was a “critical part of the UK’s overall national security” and crucial to Britain’s “ability to compete globally”.
Sharing the state’s understanding of potential risks to the economy would help ensure the UK remained a “safe and dynamic place to invest”, he added.
The forum was “one of the ways we’re co-designing solutions to shared challenges with business, providing intelligence that will allow them to make informed decisions and encourage further co-operation on national security matters”, Dowden said.
The forum was created as a result of the refresh of the UK’s so-called integrated review of its defence, security and foreign policy, which was published in March and committed the government to forge closer links with business to mitigate hostile threats.
The policy review also recommended the creation of MI5’s NPSA unit as a successor organisation to the Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure.
The forum is scheduled to meet quarterly using a similar format with broadly the same cast of attendees receiving briefings on economic threats.
The establishment of the economic security public-private forum is the latest in a series of moves this year by ministers to step up engagement with business on security issues.
Last month Dowden announced his intention to pare back the UK’s investment screening powers, less than two years after they were introduced, to make them “more business friendly”.
He launched a review, set to close next month, aimed at “narrowing and refining” the scope of the National Security and Investment Act, which allows the government to scrutinise and ultimately block takeovers.
Earlier this year ministers unveiled a delayed ÂŁ1bn semiconductor strategy designed to boost the resilience of the sector.
The government also updated its first critical raw minerals strategy, first published last year, following increased international competition for resources following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Source link
