The letter, published below, welcomes the government’s plan to establish the Centre, announced by the Prime Minister at the United Nations General Assembly in September, as an important step towards strengthening the UK’s resilience to disinformation and hostile information operations. It highlights the vital role of effective communication in protecting public trust, improving understanding of how disinformation spreads, and strengthening the resilience of democratic institutions.

With more than 11,000 members across the UK and a network of national, regional, and special interest groups the CIPR has offered to support the Centre’s launch and ensure its aims are understood by communications professionals across different sectors.

The letter also emphasises the shared interest of government and the public relations profession in tackling disinformation, which undermines public trust, distorts debate, and makes it harder for organisations to communicate accurately and constructively.

CIPR letter to the Prime Minister

Dear Prime Minister, 

Re: The proposed National Centre for Information Defence 

We are writing to welcome your plan to establish a National Centre for Information Defence. We believe this is an important step towards strengthening the UK’s resilience to disinformation and hostile information operations and protecting public confidence in our democratic institutions. A coordinated national response will be essential to identifying and countering hostile information operations while improving public understanding of how disinformation spreads and the tactics used to manipulate public opinion. We see the proposed Centre as a vital part of the infrastructure needed to safeguard public trust and democratic resilience. 

We believe that the success of the National Centre will depend on its ability to identify and respond to threats and on its capacity to engage the public, build understanding, and strengthen trust. Effective communication will be central to achieving these objectives and the expertise of the public relations profession should be part of that conversation. 

With more than 11,000 members across the UK and a network of national and regional groups, The Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) can offer a well-tested infrastructure to support the launch of the new Centre, ensuring that professionals working in different sectors understand its aims and can contribute to its advancement. Many of our members have expertise in dealing with disinformation and will be able to make an active contribution to the dissemination of the new Centre's programme. 

The CIPR represents a profession that relies on public trust to communicate effectively, build understanding, and lead engagement between organisations and the people they serve. Disinformation undermines this work, eroding trust in institutions, distracting from important public debate, and making it harder for organisations to communicate accurately and constructively. 

We would welcome the opportunity to meet with you and your officials to discuss how the CIPR and our members can support the development of the National Centre and contribute to its success. We believe that closer collaboration between government and the profession would help ensure that the UK’s response to disinformation is effective, transparent, and trusted. 

Yours sincerely, 

Alastair McCapra

The CIPR exists to be an inclusive organisation and to provide a community for everyone in public relations. We stand firmly with all professionals across communities who are being targeted and stand against racism or any form of hatred in our society and industry. We remain committed to fostering an environment where all professionals feel safe, valued, and respected and recognise the role that public relations plays in bringing communities together.

Much of this unrest and hatred has been exacerbated by deliberate misinformation and disinformation which stemmed from the tragic incident in Southport last week. We remind PR professionals of their critical responsibility to ensure that any information shared in relation to these events is reliable and factual. This is particularly true of professionals who work for organisations that have a responsibility to communicate with the public and external audiences. 

Many professionals will also have internal communication responsibilities and should consider providing advice to colleagues about sharing information on the riots and, importantly, ensuring colleagues from targeted and underrepresented groups and their families are safe. 

The CIPR has the following resources available to support PR professionals to tackle mis and disinformation:

• Disinformation and ‘Fake News’ - A guide to ethical communications for public relations practitioners by Sarah Waddington 
• Misinformation (Webinar) by Professor Darren Lilleker

The following links provide practical advice and support to the wider PR industry:

• CIPR President-Elect Advita Patel - Advice to PR professionals communicating on the race riots
• PRCA Race and Ethnicity Equity Board statement
• ‘Agency leaders should encourage frank, honest discussions’ - PR reacts to UK riots (PRWeek)
• Iprovision Mental Health hotline

The ‘Don’t Feed the Beast Campaign’ - set up by the Government via the sharechecklist.gov.uk website – aims to educate the public on disinformation related to the coronavirus outbreak through the five simple SHARE steps:

• Source - make sure information comes from a trusted source 
• Headline - always read beyond the headline 
• Analyse - check the facts 
• Retouched - does the image or video look as though it has been doctored? 
• Error - look out for bad grammar and spelling 

Meanwhile, a Rapid Response Unit – operating from within the Cabinet Office and Number 10 - has been deployed to combat false and misleading stories about coronavirus with a remit to ensure the public receives the right information in order to protect themselves and save lives.

Following an 18 month inquiry, the final report by the committee follows the interim report published in 2018 and recommends a mandatory Code of Ethics for social media companies to be enforced by an independent regulator.

The report also calls for an overhaul of electoral law which is “unfit for purpose” and fails to reflect changes in campaigning techniques including advertising and political campaigning.