Home Office written question – answered at on 30 June 2026.
Brendan O'Hara
Shadow SNP Spokesperson (Cabinet Office), Shadow SNP Spokesperson (Culture, Media and Sport), Shadow SNP Spokesperson (Middle East)
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential implications for her policies of the report by Viginum entitled Rokh Solis: Analysis of an informational modus operandi that targeted the municipal elections of March 2026, published on 11th June 2026; and whether the designation power under the National Security (State Threats) Bill 2026 can be applied to private commercial entities.
Sarah Jones
The Minister of State, Home Department
The Government is committed to safeguarding the UK's democratic integrity. The Joint Election Security Preparedness Unit (which sits jointly across the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and the Cabinet Office) is dedicated to electoral security. The designation power under the National Security (State Threats) Bill as currently drafted can be used to designate any body engaged in foreign power threat activity, including private commercial entities. The designation must be necessary to protect the safety or interests of the UK.
Yes1 person thinks so
No1 person thinks not
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Secretary of State was originally the title given to the two officials who conducted the Royal Correspondence under Elizabeth I. Now it is the title held by some of the more important Government Ministers, for example the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
The cabinet is the group of twenty or so (and no more than 22) senior government ministers who are responsible for running the departments of state and deciding government policy.
It is chaired by the prime minister.
The cabinet is bound by collective responsibility, which means that all its members must abide by and defend the decisions it takes, despite any private doubts that they might have.
Cabinet ministers are appointed by the prime minister and chosen from MPs or peers of the governing party.
However, during periods of national emergency, or when no single party gains a large enough majority to govern alone, coalition governments have been formed with cabinets containing members from more than one political party.
War cabinets have sometimes been formed with a much smaller membership than the full cabinet.
From time to time the prime minister will reorganise the cabinet in order to bring in new members, or to move existing members around. This reorganisation is known as a cabinet re-shuffle.
The cabinet normally meets once a week in the cabinet room at Downing Street.
