The final costs of recovery from the recent cyber-attack on the British Library are not yet confirmed. As it has from the outset, the British Library remains in close and regular contact with the Department on the ongoing work to investigate and assess the impact of the attack and to recover services.

Despite the cyber attack, the British Library’s buildings have remained open and well-used throughout, and it has maintained some key services including reading room access for personal study and some limited collection item ordering, exhibitions, learning events, business support, and onsite retail. In the immediate aftermath essential services such as WiFi and event ticket sales were quickly re-established.

On 15 January, the British Library restored a searchable online version of its main catalogue, comprising records of printed books, journals, maps, music scores and rare books. This will enable a manual process of checking availability and ordering to the Reading Rooms. In addition, it will offer access to an increased range of special collection material such as manuscripts and archives. Taken together, these improvements mean that from this date the majority of physical books and special collections held at its St Pancras site will once again be available for use.

Further updates will be provided as the Library continues to recover from the attack.

The final costs of recovery from the recent cyber-attack on the British Library are not yet confirmed. As it has from the outset, the British Library remains in close and regular contact with the Department on the ongoing work to investigate and assess the impact of the attack and to recover services.

Despite the cyber attack, the British Library’s buildings have remained open and well-used throughout, and it has maintained some key services including reading room access for personal study and some limited collection item ordering, exhibitions, learning events, business support, and onsite retail. In the immediate aftermath essential services such as WiFi and event ticket sales were quickly re-established.

On 15 January, the British Library restored a searchable online version of its main catalogue, comprising records of printed books, journals, maps, music scores and rare books. This will enable a manual process of checking availability and ordering to the Reading Rooms. In addition, it will offer access to an increased range of special collection material such as manuscripts and archives. Taken together, these improvements mean that from this date the majority of physical books and special collections held at its St Pancras site will once again be available for use.

Further updates will be provided as the Library continues to recover from the attack.

The British Library receives public funding via DCMS to run the Public Lending Right scheme. Payments are made annually to eligible authors who register their work. The British Library is making good progress towards issuing Public Lending Right payments before the end of March at the latest, in line with the PLR Scheme legislation.

The British Library receives public funding via DCMS to run the Public Lending Right scheme. Payments are made annually to eligible authors who register their work. The British Library is making good progress towards issuing Public Lending Right payments before the end of March at the latest, in line with the PLR Scheme legislation.

This Government recognises that outsourcing is an important component in a “mixed economy” of public service provision and that the private sector has played a crucial role in the country’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic, including in relation to the development and procurement of the Government’s world-leading vaccine programme. Under the terms of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015, departments and other public authorities are able to use various applicable procedures. Public authorities across the United Kingdom including the devolved administrations and local authorities have made use of direct awards - this includes Leeds City Council. Similar approaches were adopted by many other countries, including Japan, Finland and New Zealand. It is unrealistic to suggest that the government ought to have run a full public procurement competition for PPE and other critical contracts at the height of the pandemic. The minimum number of days a competitive award could take place under the current rules is 25 days. This would have hugely slowed down the buying of vital PPE supplies.

Further to the Outsourcing Playbook, available on gov.uk, and as has been the case under successive administrations, public sector contracting authorities are responsible for their own commercial decisions, such as the award and monitoring of contracts. Regarding cyber security, details of the Cyber Essentials scheme is available on gov.uk. The requested information on service credits is not held centrally.

I note that the Hon Member has not yet replied to the letter by my Rt Hon Friend the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster of 20 November 2020. As a courtesy, I will ensure that a further copy of the letter is sent to her office to ensure she has a chance to reply to the points raised.