Cyber Security and Resilience (Network and Information Systems) Bill Remaining Stages: New Clause 13

The House of Commons rejected New Clause 13 to the Cyber Security and Resilience (Network and Information Systems) Bill on 16 June 2026, by 255 votes to 77. The new clause, proposed by the Liberal Democrats, would have required the Secretary of State to publish a Digital Sovereignty Strategy within 12 months of the Act passing, setting out how the government would assess and manage risks from foreign interference and reliance on foreign-supplied technologies in critical national infrastructure, and how it would build domestic capacity to reduce that reliance. The vote matters because it concerns whether the government would be legally required to produce a coherent strategy for protecting the UK's essential services, digital service providers, managed service providers and critical suppliers from foreign technology risks. The new clause would have covered hardware, software, supply chains and procurement processes, with a specific focus on government digital procurement and promoting British technology suppliers. Its defeat means the Bill will proceed without this obligation, leaving such decisions to ministerial discretion rather than a statutory framework. The parties divided sharply along government and opposition lines. All 228 Labour MPs and all 26 Labour and Co-operative MPs who voted opposed the new clause. The Liberal Democrats provided the core support, with all 58 of their voting MPs backing it, alongside all five Green MPs, all four Plaid Cymru MPs, all four Democratic Unionist Party MPs, both Your Party MPs, one SDLP MP and one Traditional Unionist Voice MP. The Conservatives had no vote recorded in this division, having signalled through their spokesperson that they would not back the new clause. Three Independents voted Aye and three voted No.