The secretary of state for technology and the chancellor have both announced major intended commercial spending on new IT facilities, which will now benefit from increased government protection and support

Cabinet ministers have revealed that datacentres will be classified as part of the UK’s critical national infrastructure – shortly after announcing that market powerhouse Amazon Web Services is to invest £8bn in the country.

The CNI designation means that companies operating IT hosting facilities can “expect greater government support in recovering from and anticipating critical incidents”, according to the government.

This assistance will include the creation of a dedicated unit of “senior government officials” whose role will include a remit to “monitor and anticipate potential threats… and coordinate access to emergency services” in the event of a cyberattack or outage.

Citing the example of a theoretical incident affecting a facility hosting NHS records, the government indicated that it “would intervene to ensure contingencies are in place to mitigate the risk of damage or to essential services” – including front line patient treatments.

As with the existing CNI categories, this work will be managed and led from the Cabinet Office – working closely with other agencies, in particular the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology.

Related content

• Government CTO: ‘There’s room for all the cloud industry players to have a meaningful role’
• Buying group plans £3bn ‘Alpha G-Cloud’ framework as alternative to CCS deal
• Regulators must act now to get a grip on the relationship between cloud and AI

In a statement made to parliament, DSIT’s minister for data protection and telecoms Chris Bryant said that, while the cloud and hosting “sector already has high standards, CNI designation enables better mitigation of risks the sector faces through an improvement to the government’s visibility and engagement with the data centre and cloud service industry”.

“It signals the government’s intention to better partner with the UK’s data infrastructure sector to work together to mitigate these,” he added said. “We will also explore further how to ensure the right conditions are in place to drive necessary capacity expansion to support economic growth and innovation. As the department responsible for monitoring, protecting and enhancing the security and resilience of data infrastructure, DSIT will be working to better understand industry operators’ existing risk mitigations and identify areas for government support.”

Inward investment
The inclusion of datacentres in the CNI regime – which also includes water, energy, and emergency-services infrastructure – is the first time a new classification has been made since 2015, when the defence and space sectors were added to the list.

Putting computing infrastructure systems on a par with these other areas will also help to “deter cybercriminals from targeting” them, while also supporting increased confidence in firms making investments in new UK datacentres, the government hopes.

One company already doing so is public cloud titan AWS, which is to invest £8bn in this country over the next five years, following a meeting with chancellor Rachel Reeves last week. This money will be spent on the construction of new IT infrastructure, as well as artificial intelligence technologies. This work will support 14,000 jobs across AWS itself, its supply chain, and the wider local economy, the Treasury believes.

“I am under no illusion to the scale of the challenge facing our economy and I will be honest with the British people that change will not happen overnight,” Reeves said. “Two quarters of positive economic growth does not make up for fourteen years of stagnation under the previous government. However, this £8bn investment marks the start of the economic revival and shows Britain is a place to do business. I am determined to go further so we can deliver on our mandate to create jobs, unlock investment and make every part of Britain better off. The hard work to fix the foundations of our economy has only just begun.”

Her cabinet colleague, secretary of state for science, innovation and technology Peter Kyle, also announced government’s support for a planned £3.75bn project to build what is intended to be Europe’s largest datacentre in Hertfordshire. Leading the work is a newly established company DC01UK – a vehicle seemingly created for the purpose of delivering the major IT infrastructure programme.

Kyle claimed that considering the such facilities to be part of the UK’s critical national infrastructure reflects a world where “datacentres are the engines of modern life; they power the digital economy and keep our most personal information safe”.

“Bringing datacentres into the critical national infrastructure regime will allow better coordination and cooperation with the government against cyber criminals and unexpected events,” he added. “The huge £3.75bn private investment announced today in Hertfordshire is a vote of confidence in those plans and a clear example of my determination to ensure technological advancements are helping to grow our economy and create wealth across the country.”