Written question asked by Jenny Willott (Liberal Democrat) on Wednesday, 8 July 2009, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 13 July 2009. It was answered by Lord Hanson of Flint (Labour) on Monday, 20 July 2009 on behalf of the Home Office.

Office of Cyber Security: Cyber Security Operations Centre

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the (a) budget and (b) number of staff of the (i) Office of Cyber Security and (ii) Cyber Security Operations Centre in Cheltenham is in 2009-10; and if he will make a statement.

Answer: The Office of Cyber Security (OCS) will be established in September 2009 to provide strategic leadership for and coherence across Government, and to establish a cross-Government programme to address priority areas in pursuit of the UK's strategic cyber security objectives. The exact staffing and budgetary arrangements are currently being determined.The Cyber Security Operations Centre (CSOC) will be established at the same time to bring together existing multi-agency efforts to provide situational awareness, analysis and incident response co-ordination in the cyber security field, making sure that new and existing resources are used to best effect in the areas where they are needed the most. The exact staffing and budgetary arrangements are currently being determined.The additional resources for the Government's overall cyber security programme will be reported to the House in the autumn.

Secondary information