Lord Browne of Belmont

The Government is committed to using all of its levers to disrupt cyber threats and to keep the public safe. We do this by investing in our cyber capabilities, working with industry to improve resilience to cyber crime, and by engaging internationally to pursue and expose malicious cyber activity through sanctions and attributions.

The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), part of GCHQ, is our world leading capability and has helped create the Knowledge Base, an innovative tool to understand the relationships between and impact of any disruption to critical systems, regardless of the hazard involved. The National Cyber Force (NCF) conducts cyber operations to disrupt hostile state activities, terrorists and criminals threatening the UK’s national security, from countering terror plots to supporting military operations.

Through the Cyber Security and Resilience Bill, this Government will bolster our national defences and critical infrastructure.

On 16 September, Harland and Wolff announced the winding down of non-core operations and were clear that this would in no way affect jobs at its shipyards or core operations, including delivering on contracts for the Ministry of Defence at the Belfast shipyard.

We explored all options to provide support and following a thorough review of Harland and Wolff’s financial situation, it is clear that at present the market is best placed to address their challenges.

We will continue to work across government and with the Northern Ireland Executive, as needed, to help secure shipbuilding and manufacturing across the UK.

Under the Online Safety Act regulatory framework, online platforms are required to take steps to reduce the risk their services are used to facilitate fraud, scams and other illegal activity. These duties have started to take effect on services. Ofcom is the regulator and has powers to enforce against non-compliance.

Government and industry are also currently developing a second Telecoms Charter. Under the first Telecommunications Charter, telecoms operators introduced firewalls that have stopped more than 1 billion scam text messages since January 2022. The Government will also ban “SIM farms”, devices used to send out scam texts to thousands of people at once.

The Cyber Security Sectoral Analysis and the Cyber Security Labour Market Survey, published by DSIT, show the cyber sector is creating more jobs every year, while the annual shortfall of cyber professionals is reducing.

To continue this progress, we deliver the CyberFirst programme that supports 11-25 year-olds across the UK with a range of opportunities, including educational courses, events and competitions, and financial support. DSIT also funds the UK Cyber Team Competition to identify our most talented 18-25 year-olds, who then go on to receive access to advanced training and mentorship to help develop their careers.

Additionally, DSIT funds the UK Cyber Security Council as the professional authority for cyber security. This body sets the standard for the profession, making it easier to recognise excellence and expertise for employers and practitioners alike.

Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only.

The department recently launched a public consultation on narrowing the digital divide between schools and colleges, so we can bring together the sector’s expertise to embed effective technology use, harness the opportunities that technology can offer, and ensure all students have access to it.

Through the proposals and investment set out in this consultation, the department wants to set milestones to break down the barriers to opportunity to ensure every child and young person has access to the best possible education. To support this ambition, we are investing another £25 million to upgrade wireless networks in schools this year, on top of £20 million to complete delivery of fibre internet upgrades to 833 schools.

Furthermore, the Child Poverty Taskforce is progressing urgent work to publish the Child Poverty Strategy. The Strategy will tackle overall child poverty, as well as going beyond that to focus on children in the deepest poverty lacking essentials and what is needed to give every child the best start in life.

The department is also working with the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) on their ambitious national plans for digital inclusion. DSIT published their Digital Inclusion Action Plan: First Steps in February 2025. This is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/digital-inclusion-action-plan-first-steps/digital-inclusion-action-plan-first-steps#chapter-6---next-steps.

Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only.

In England, there are several statutory assessments taken by eligible pupils during primary school. These include the reception baseline assessment in the first six weeks after entering reception, the early years foundation stage profile at the end of reception year, the phonics screening check in year 1, the multiplication tables check in year 4, and end of key stage 2 tests and teacher assessments, usually taken at the end of year 6. GCSEs and other public examinations in secondary school are not statutory assessments.

Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only.

The school census collects different categories of data for different cohorts of individuals depending on factors such as age, year group and type of school attended. Categories of data collected via the school census include:

• Instant identifiers such as name and address.
• Meaningful identifiers such as unique pupil numbers and unique learner numbers.
• Characteristics such as ethnicity, language and free school meals eligibility.
• Details of any special educational needs.
• Information on absence and suspensions/exclusions.

Full details of the information collection via the school census are available here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/complete-the-school-census/data-items-2024-to-2025.

Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only.

The provision of information about individual pupils to the department is a statutory requirement on schools in England under section 537A of the Education Act 1996. Under those powers, the ‘Education (Information About Individual Pupils) (England) Regulations 2013’, as amended, detail the specific identifiable pupil data that must be returned. The Regulations can be found at: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2013/2094/made. Together this provides the legislative basis for the school census.

Whilst it is not possible for a parent/guardian or an individual child to opt out of the school census collection, information on (1) ethnicity, (2) first language and (3) whether a child is the child of someone in the Armed Services, must always be as declared by the parent/guardian or the pupil where a pupil is deemed mature enough to have capacity to consent to sharing their personal data with others. When collecting the data items listed above from the parent/guardian or pupil, schools should ensure that they are made aware of their right to decline to provide these data items. Where they exercise this right, the information will be recorded on the school system as ‘refused’ and will not be transferred to the department as part of the school census.

Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only.

The provision of information about individual pupils to the department is a statutory requirement on schools in England under section 537A of the Education Act 1996. Under those powers, the ‘Education (Information About Individual Pupils) (England) Regulations 2013’, as amended, detail the specific identifiable pupil data that must be returned. The Regulations can be found at: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2013/2094/made. Together this provides the legislative basis for the school census.

Whilst it is not possible for a parent/guardian or an individual child to opt out of the school census collection, information on (1) ethnicity, (2) first language and (3) whether a child is the child of someone in the Armed Services, must always be as declared by the parent/guardian or the pupil where a pupil is deemed mature enough to have capacity to consent to sharing their personal data with others. When collecting the data items listed above from the parent/guardian or pupil, schools should ensure that they are made aware of their right to decline to provide these data items. Where they exercise this right, the information will be recorded on the school system as ‘refused’ and will not be transferred to the department as part of the school census.

The Government remains committed to safeguarding the supply of veterinary medicines into Northern Ireland to protect animal health and welfare and will be setting out its approach on this in due course. This area remains a priority, and officials continue to engage regularly with the EU. The Government continues to work at pace to offer clarity on ensuring the supply of veterinary medicines after the grace period ends on 31st December 2025.

It is the longstanding policy of successive UK Governments that we do not comment on intelligence matters. The UK will continue to work with partners to address evolving threats and deliver impact for UK security.