A Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office spokesperson said:

The UK condemns North Korea’s ballistic missile launches on 4 and 7 May. We remain deeply concerned by repeated testing of ballistic missile technology which is damaging regional security and stability.

The UK works closely with our partners to urge North Korea to return to dialogue and take credible steps towards denuclearisation in a complete, verifiable and irreversible manner.

• Financial Services and Markets Bill will maintain and enhance the UK’s position as a global leader in financial services having left the EU.

• The Bill will protect cash by ensuring continued access to withdrawal and deposit facilities across the UK.

• Banks can be required by the regulator to reimburse victims of authorised push payment fraud.

The new Financial Services and Markets Bill, announced in today’s Queen’s Speech at the state opening of parliament, will support consumers by protecting access to cash. It will ensure the continued availability of withdrawal and deposit facilities across the UK, and that the country’s cash infrastructure is sustainable for the long term.

Cash remains an important payment method for millions of people across the UK, particularly those in vulnerable groups, and the government is committed to preserving it.

The Bill will also enable the Payment Systems Regulator to require banks to reimburse authorised push payment (APP) scam losses, totalling hundreds of millions of pounds each year. This will ensure victims are not left paying for fraud through no fault of their own.

These measures form part of wider plans to maintain and enhance the UK’s position as a global leader in financial services, cutting red tape while maintaining high regulatory standards and ensuring the sector continues to deliver for individuals and businesses.

Economic Secretary to the Treasury, John Glen said:

We are reforming our financial services sector now we have left the EU to ensure it acts in the interests of communities and citizens, creating jobs, supporting businesses, and powering growth across all of the UK. “We know that access to cash is still vital for many people, especially those in vulnerable groups. We promised we would protect it, and through this Bill we are delivering on that promise.

We are also sticking up for victims of financial scams that can have a devastating impact, by ensuring the regulator can act to make banks reimburse people who have lost money through no fault of their own.

The Financial Services and Markets Bill delivers on the ambitious vision for the financial services sector set out by the Chancellor at Mansion House last year. It builds on the Financial Services Act 2021, which was the first step in amending the UK’s regulatory regime outside of the EU.

The Bill will make the most of the opportunities of Brexit, by establishing a coherent, agile and internationally-respected approach to financial services regulation that is right for the UK.

The main elements of the Bill are:

• Revoking retained EU law on financial services and replacing it with an approach to regulation that is designed for the UK. This includes the Solvency II legislation governing the regulation of insurers, which the government has committed to reform.

• Updating the objectives of the financial services regulators to ensure a greater focus on growth and international competitiveness.

• Reforming the rules that regulate the UK’s capital markets, the engine of the UK economy, to promote investment.

• Ensuring that people across the UK continue to be able to access their own cash with ease.

• Introducing additional protections for those investing or using financial products, and to make it safer and support the victims of scams.

More details will be available when the Bill is formally introduced.

As announced in the 2022/23 inspection plan, the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration has commenced an inspection of the Hong Kong British National (Overseas) visa route.

The inspection team anticipate reporting to the Home Secretary by June 2022.

• New UK and US intelligence suggests Russia was behind an operation targeting commercial communications company Viasat in Ukraine.
• Incident on 24th February caused outages for several thousand Ukrainian customers, and impacted windfarms and internet uses in central Europe.
• Cyber security leaders from the 5 Eyes, EU and other international allies meet at the NCSC’s Cyber UK conference in Newport today to discuss shared threats.

Russia has been behind a series of cyber-attacks since the start of the renewed invasion of Ukraine, the EU, UK, US and other allies have announced today (10 May). The most recent attack on communications company Viasat in Ukraine had a wider impact across the continent, disrupting wind farms and internet users in central Europe.

The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) assesses that the Russian Military Intelligence was almost certainly involved in the 13 January defacements of Ukrainian government websites and the deployment of Whispergate destructive malware. The NCSC also assesses that it is almost certain Russia was responsible for the subsequent cyber-attack impacting Viasat on 24 February.

On 24 February, a cyber-attack against Viasat began approximately one hour before Russia launched its major invasion of Ukraine. Although the primary target is believed to have been the Ukrainian military, other customers were affected, including personal and commercial internet users. Wind farms in central Europe and internet users were also affected.

Viasat has said that ‘tens of thousands of terminals have been damaged, made inoperable and cannot be repaired.’

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said:

This is clear and shocking evidence of a deliberate and malicious attack by Russia against Ukraine which had significant consequences on ordinary people and businesses in Ukraine and across Europe.

We will continue to call out Russia’s malign behaviour and unprovoked aggression across land, sea and cyberspace, and ensure it faces severe consequences.

Today’s announcement comes as cyber security leaders from the 5 Eyes, EU and international allies meet at the NCSC’s Cyber UK conference in Newport to discuss the cyber threats facing the world.

The UK has already sanctioned the GRU after their appalling actions in Salisbury, and has frozen more than £940 billion worth of bank assets and £117 billion in personal net worth from oligarchs and their family members who fund Putin’s war machine.