What the UK Cyber Security and Resilience Bill Means for Organizations

The UK Government has introduced the Cyber Security and Resilience (Network and Information Systems) Bill, which updates and expands the UK’s Network and Information Systems Regulations 2018 (NIS Regulations). The Bill is intended to improve the security and resilience of essential and digital services by reflecting changes in how organizations operate, how services are delivered, and how cyber threats have evolved.

The scale and impact of cyber incidents affecting critical national infrastructure and key suppliers is increasing. As more organizations rely on cloud services, digital infrastructure, and managed service providers, the Bill aims to ensure that security expectations reflect these modern dependencies.

For security leaders, the bill reinforces the need for mature vulnerability management, coordinated disclosure, and transparent security practices across internal systems and third-party environments (like other recent updates such as the NCSC’s release of CAF v4.0).

What Is the Cyber Security and Resilience (NIS) Bill?

Under the current NIS Regulations, operators of essential services—such as energy, transport, health, drinking water and digital infrastructure—and certain digital service providers are required to take appropriate and proportionate security measures and report significant incidents to regulators.

The new Bill retains this risk-based framework but reforms and extends it. It broadens the types of organizations that may be regulated, updates incident-reporting requirements, and provides regulators with additional tools for more consistent oversight across sectors.

What’s Changing Under the New Bill?

Area of Change	Summary
Expanded scope	The Bill extends the NIS framework to cover medium and large data centres (a new “data infrastructure” sector), Relevant Managed Service Providers (RMSPs) that manage or administer customer IT systems, and large load controllers and designated critical suppliers that support essential and digital services.
Updated incident reporting	The definition of a reportable incident now includes events capable of causing significant impact. Regulated entities will need to provide an initial notification within 24 hours and a full report within 72 hours, with parallel notification to the NCSC. Customer notifications are required where users are likely to be affected.
Regulator tools and future-proofing	The Bill introduces updated enforcement powers, a mechanism for government to set strategic priorities for regulators, revised cost-recovery frameworks and powers to update the regime through secondary legislation or direct action in response to imminent national-security concerns.

What Happens Next?

The Bill was introduced in November 2025 and has not yet been enacted. It is expected to move through the remaining legislative stages and likely become law in 2026. If passed, some elements will take effect quickly, while most operational requirements—such as those for data centres, RMSPs, large load controllers, and critical suppliers—will follow through secondary legislation.

The UK Government plans to consult on this detailed implementation after passage in 2026 before finalizing these requirements, followed by a phase-in period to allow organizations to prepare for any new requirements.

How Organizations Can Prepare for Evolving NIS Expectations

While the Bill does not prescribe specific technical controls or require particular security practices, its emphasis on earlier incident detection, clearer documentation, and stronger oversight of supporting services reflects a broader shift in how organizations approach resilience.

Many security teams are already adopting measures that help them identify and manage vulnerabilities across increasingly complex environments. These include structured processes for receiving and addressing vulnerability information, assessments of third-party and supply-chain dependencies, ongoing testing of externally facing systems, and maintaining clear records of remediation activity.

These approaches can help organizations strengthen visibility and preparedness as expectations for transparency and operational resilience continue to evolve.

Strengthening Security Through Proactive, Transparent Practices

The Cyber Security and Resilience Bill highlights the need for clear, consistent and well-governed approaches to managing vulnerabilities across organizations and their supply chains. As regulatory expectations evolve, structured methods for receiving, validating and remediating vulnerabilities become increasingly important.

HackerOne helps organizations build these foundations through coordinated vulnerability disclosure, external testing, red-team exercises, and supplier-focused assessments. These practices provide the transparency and continuous validation that regulators expect, while strengthening overall resilience across complex digital environments.

As the UK moves toward a more comprehensive and modernised cyber-regulatory framework, now is the time for security teams to prioritise maturity, clarity and collaboration in how they manage vulnerabilities.