44 National Security Strategy and Strategic Defence and Security Review
Resilience arrangements in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland
4.133 The handling of the response to an emergency that occurs in, or affects, Scotland,
Wales or Northern Ireland will depend on whether or not the emergency relates to a devolved
or reserved matter. In areas of reserved responsibility, the UK Government’s lead department
will lead the response, working closely with the devolved administration.
4.134 Each of the devolved administrations has tried and tested arrangements in place to
coordinate the responses to aspects of emergencies for which they are responsible. There
are arrangements in place for local cross-border coordination between responders, where
required. In the most challenging emergencies, especially where they have consequences
for the whole of the UK, there are established arrangements for linking the UK Government’s
emergency coordination structures with those of the devolved administrations, to ensure that
we have a coordinated response.
Critical National Infrastructure (CNI)
4.135 Our CNI includes all the essential mechanisms which keep the country functioning,
ranging from the core functions of government, through to ensuring the availability of food and
water, fuel and reliable communications.
4.136 Large parts of our infrastructure are in the private sector. The Government will
work with infrastructure owners and operators to mitigate risks to our CNI from malicious
attack and from natural hazards. We will make sure that the Government has the right
regulatory framework to ensure that our CNI is resilient to future threats.
4.137 We will work with owners and operators to strengthen the cyber security of
our infrastructure. We will establish a cyber training centre and test lab to support the
development of more secure technology for use in our CNI, and we will drive up standards
of CNI security.
4.138 Essential services must be able to carry on running in the unlikely event of a
widespread power cut. We will enhance the UK’s resilience to power disruptions, and we
will work with critical sectors to ensure that new measures are tested and reliable.
4.139 Responsibilities for infrastructure policing are shared across a number of organisations
with different levels of capability and capacity, and different arrangements for funding,
oversight, regulation and legislation. We intend to integrate infrastructure policing further
and we will review options to do this.
Energy security
4.140 The UK will meet future energy needs from both domestic production and imports from
overseas. We aim to ensure that consumers have secure, sustainable and affordable access
to the energy they need, managing the risks posed by regional instability, climate change,
natural events and rising global demand.
4.141 We will tackle energy security challenges robustly. We have balanced the need for a
competitive energy market with government action to ensure a diverse supply of energy for
consumers. As part of this we are modernising the UK’s energy infrastructure, including by
attracting inward investors, with appropriate assessment of any national security risks, and
mitigation. This approach has resulted in the recent investment by China into the new Hinkley
Point C nuclear power station, supporting our longer term energy security.