UK democratic integrity
Parliamentary inquiry to examine UK's democratic integrity ahead of election
A parliamentary inquiry will scrutinize the work of a National Security Council (NSC) taskforce that aims to protect the democratic integrity of the United Kingdom from foreign interference. In an announcement on Thursday titled ‘deepfakes, misinformation, fraud and cyberattacks’ the Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy (JCNSS) said it would be raising questions about the security and resilience of elections across the U.K., especially on the work of the NSC’s Defending Democracy Taskforce. Why it matters:
The Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy (JCNSS) is launching a parliamentary inquiry into the activities of the National Security Council (NSC) taskforce dedicated to defending UK’s democratic integrity from foreign interference. The wide scope of the inquiry reflects the urgency of the issue and growing concerns about election security and resilience.
The JCNSS’s call for evidence from ‘anyone with answers’ underlines the complexity and multidimensional nature of the threats to the UK’s democracy. This collaborative approach could yield diverse insights into the origins and nature of the perceived threats, the securing of elections, and ways to enhance cooperation among democracies to combat foreign interference.
The UK’s historical record with foreign interference underscores the significance of the inquiry. Despite official insistence that all foreign interference attempts have been unsuccessful, past incidents have sparked controversy and have cast doubts on the ‘success’ of such interventions, indicative of the contentious nature of defining and gauging ‘successful interference.’
