Gordon McKee

The accessibility monitoring team in the Government Digital Service (GDS) has found that for central government websites that operate independently of GOV.UK - including those run by the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish governments - 61% met accessibility requirements at time of assessment. The GOV.UK website is regularly tested for accessibility and central government organisations are expected to use GOV.UK for their publishing.

In May 2026, GDS issued a survey to 10 central government departments to better understand barriers to compliance with government’s accessibility requirements. The survey has since closed and GDS is currently considering the responses.

The Government is aware of the risk created by supply chain cyber security incidents and is taking a range of steps to strengthen cyber resilience across government’s supply chains. These include embedding cyber security considerations into commercial and procurement activity, promoting the adoption of recognised cyber security standards, and working across government to identify and manage supply chain cyber risks.

In addition, the Government is engaging directly with its Strategic Suppliers through the Government Cyber Charter. As part of this work, all 39 Strategic Suppliers have been invited to sign the Government Cyber Resilience Pledge, which was launched last week as a public commitment to strengthening organisational cyber resilience. More than 20 Strategic Suppliers have already joined the first cohort of signatories, including major suppliers to government such as Microsoft, Accenture, Deloitte, Vodafone and Capgemini. Through the Charter, Government is working with Strategic Suppliers to strengthen cyber governance, increase the adoption of the National Cyber Security Centre’s Cyber Essentials scheme throughout supply chains, and improve secure software development and AI practices.

The Government Cyber Action Plan, published in January 2026, sets out how Government will improve incident reporting over the next 3 years.

Elections in the UK continue to be well-run, but the Electoral Commission has highlighted that the electoral system faces growing threats, including from foreign interference.

The Commission’s regulatory remit is focused on ensuring the safeguards against foreign interference in the political finance system are properly enforced. The Commission also makes recommendations to further strengthen the law, a number of which are being taken forward in the Representation of the People Bill.

The Commission also plays an important convening role, with partners, to enable the sharing of election-related security information with the electoral community, particularly in the run-up to elections. It is part of the Defending Democracy Taskforce and earlier this year it organised a briefing event for political parties with National Protective Security Authority (NPSA) and National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) to discuss their guidance that covers protecting democratic institutions.

The Cabinet Office recognises the valuable role that the voluntary, community and faith sector (VCFS) can play in all aspects of resilience. The Civil Contingencies Act 2004 requires local Category 1 responders ‘to have regard’ to the activities of voluntary organisations while carrying out their duties. This is reinforced in guidance and standards, which provide further detail on the benefits of including the VCFS within local exercising.

The Cabinet Office is committed to conducting one major ‘Tier 1’ ministerial-led exercise annually under the National Exercising Programme. On 15th July and as part of the national resilience annual statement, the government announced that the next Tier 1 exercise (Exercise ALBISTON SHADOW) will focus on homeland defence.

Under a Tier 1 exercise, Government departments, agencies, non-governmental organisations and local responders are all involved to deliver the objectives and requirements of each year's exercise. In support of this, work is also underway to ensure that guidance, best practice, frameworks and other tools are made available to all parts of the system so that high-quality exercising can happen at all levels, not just during Tier 1 exercises.

The Cabinet Office measures the impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) training that we provide to civil servants through a range of methods aligned with government evaluation guidance in the magenta book. We are further developing our approach to the measurement of the impact of AI training on productivity and public services, and are planning to publish a monitoring and evaluation framework later this year.

The Government is committed to ensuring that small businesses are aware of the Small Business Commissioner’s expanded role and powers. The Commissioner already provides advice, guidance and support through its website, outreach activity and communications channels, and these will be strengthened as new powers are introduced. The Department will work closely with the Commissioner to deliver a comprehensive communications and engagement programme, helping small businesses understand their rights, access support, and benefit from the stronger protections and enforcement measures provided by the Commercial Payments Bill.

The Department for Business and Trade is working closely with the Cabinet Office, HM Treasury and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (including the Commercial Innovation Hub) to improve public procurement of innovation.

Through the Industrial Strategy and measures announced at Autumn Budget 2025 the government is going further to support innovative UK scale-ups to access public procurement – including through the establishment of an Innovation Marketplace, expanded use of Advance Market Commitments and appointment of Innovation Champions in all departments.

Electronic invoicing, or e-invoicing, will become mandatory for VAT transactions from April 2029. E-invoicing will help business productivity and efficiency, reduce late payments and streamline tax administration.

DBT and HMRC ran a consultation between February and May 2025 to gather views on e-invoicing from a wide range of stakeholders, including small businesses and business representative organisations.

We are now working collaboratively to co-design e-invoicing policy, including with business representative organisations and accountancy and bookkeeping networks who champion small business interests.

The government will publish an Implementation Roadmap at Budget 2026 to update on progress and set out key milestones ahead of the mandate.

The government is taking action to improve the availability of large-scale growth capital available to UK scale-ups. Through a new strategic mandate and reforms to the British Business Bank (BBB), the BBB is increasing support for late-stage businesses, including through larger and faster investments. The government has increased BBB’s financial capacity to £25.6 billion, enabling it to invest both directly and through funds at scale, helping to mobilise private capital and ensuring late stage UK companies can access the finance they need to scale and remain in the UK.

Under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (DMCCA), online platforms must take reasonable steps to ensure consumer reviews on their sites are genuine. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has published guidance for businesses that publish reviews to help meet their legal obligations.

The DMCCA has given the CMA new direct enforcement powers to decide if certain consumer laws have been breached and to fine businesses up to 10% of annual turnover.

The CMA currently has five live investigations into businesses that may have infringed consumer law in relation to online reviews: Fake and misleading reviews: 5 businesses under CMA investigation - GOV.UK

Energy suppliers are extending smart metering Home Area Network connectivity in properties including tenement buildings where there are obstacles such as concrete floors between the apartment and the meter.

'Dual band' communications hubs serve many previously hard to reach properties. For the minority of properties where these cannot provide connectivity, the Alternative Home Area Network solution provides an additional smart metering HAN connectivity option for properties such as the higher floors of high-rise buildings. Finally, the Crowded Meter Room Resolution model is now available in buildings where meter room space constraints previously prevented installation of the Alt HAN solution.

Great British Energy – Nuclear (GBE-N) has an ambition that 70% of supply chain products will be British built across the small modular reactor (SMR) fleet, including both on-site and off-site activity. We intend for this ambition to be met.

Now that GBE-N and Rolls Royce SMR have entered into contract, the two organisations are working jointly to progress supply chain planning.

GBE‑N is actively considering, as part of an SMR Industrial Strategy, the critical enablers needed to ensure the UK nuclear supply chain is match-fit and globally competitive. GBE-N's SMR Industrial Strategy is expected to be submitted to government later this year.

The government is committed to building a digitally skilled workforce to support long-term economic growth, drive innovation and expand individual opportunity across the UK.

Skills England has developed a framework outlining the foundational AI skills that are needed to thrive in today’s AI economy. AI Skills Boost courses are underpinned by this framework, and a number of these courses carry additional accreditations.

Anyone who completes an AI Skills Boost Course covering all 6 foundation skills will receive a virtual badge to show they have met this benchmark, which can be displayed on their LinkedIn profile to demonstrate their skills to employers. These courses and virtual badges help employers to know that workers can use AI tools in a safe, effective and responsible way.

There are currently around 36 social tariffs with at least one of these being available across 99% of the UK. Government's approach has been to work with industry and Ofcom to improve awareness, simplify access, and support switching to cheaper deals and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology continues to work with Ofcom to monitor take-up of social tariffs.

The Government has taken steps to increase uptake among eligible households. In February 2026, Government secured commitments from major telecoms providers through the Telecoms Consumer Charter, which requires providers to proactively signpost social tariffs to eligible customers and make them easier to find.

The State of Digital Government Review, published in January 2025, highlighted that concentrating workloads on a limited number of suppliers creates systemic concentration risks. The National Risk Register 2026, published on 14 July, further identifies disruption to third-party suppliers and digital infrastructure as a significant resilience risk.

Existing Government cyber policy and technology frameworks already support a range of resilience measures to tackle this, by requiring departments to assess security, resilience and business continuity risks when procuring and operating cloud.

The Government's Cloud First policy encourages organisations to consider all suitable suppliers and supports competition in cloud procurement, while the Multi‑Region Cloud Policy promotes deployment across multiple regions to improve resilience. Public procurement seeks to maintain a diverse supplier base, while the Competition and Markets Authority is independently examining competition in the UK cloud market.

Alongside this, Government is tackling these risks through the implementation of the Government Cyber Action Plan, which sets out our approach to enhancing cyber security and resilience across the public sector, including through enhanced cyber assurance and oversight.

The Government does not hold Workforce Commission data specifically at Glasgow City Region level. The latest available data indicates approximately 2,800 civil servants in digital, data and technology roles across Scotland.

The Government's ambition is for Digital, Data and Cyber Professions to reach 10% of the Civil Service workforce by 2030, up from approximately 5.8% today. This is being taken forward through the Roadmap for Modern Digital Government and the forthcoming Digital Workforce 2030 Strategy, which set out plans to address workforce shortages, strengthen digital leadership, and improve recruitment, retention and cross-sector mobility.

This includes expanding entry and development routes such as TechTrack apprenticeships, the Digital Fast Stream, AI and Data Science Accelerator programmes, returnship opportunities, and access to learning and accreditation through initiatives such as Get Tech Certified and the Government Digital and Data Hub. The Government is also reforming the Digital, Data and Cyber Pay Framework and strengthening profession capability frameworks to support recruitment and retention of specialist talent.

To improve the recruitment and retention of cyber security professionals across Government, DSIT launched the Government Cyber Profession in February 2026. The profession will introduce a competitive total employee offer, establish a dedicated Cyber Recruitment Hub to streamline recruitment, and create a clear career framework aligned with UK Cyber Security Council professional standards. This will directly address our cyber skills gaps, increase access to and help retain talent, establish cross-government standards, and provide learning and development programmes.

At the national level, the £200 million TechFirst programme is building the UK's domestic cyber talent pipeline, complemented by the UK Cyber Security Council's professional standards which support recruitment and retention across industry.

DCMS is working with Sally Davies, AI Champion of the Creative Industries, and others to consider how best to support AI adoption. Sally has been engaging closely with the sector to inform her AI Adoption Plan for the Creative Industries, which was published in June.

Sally’s recommendations are not formally part of government policy, however we will carefully consider next steps in order to allow our creative industries to best seize the opportunities for innovation and growth presented by AI. This includes recommendations to raise the practical AI knowledge and confidence and develop trusted guidance, standards and tools for AI adoption.

We aim to help creative businesses, especially SMEs and the self-employed, build the skills and confidence to use AI safely and effectively. The government joins the AI Champion in supporting an augmentation-first approach to AI Adoption in the creative industries. AI should support human creativity, not displace it.

We are committed to working with Sally and the sector to increase accessibility to industry-backed knowledge, infrastructure and support, so as to empower creatives to make an informed decision on whether they’ll use AI or not.

The Government has been clear that arenas and stadiums have a vital role to play to accelerate adoption of the £1 ticket contribution to support grassroots music. The Government has convened the live music industry, including arena and stadium operators and their representative bodies, to drive further uptake of the voluntary levy and to understand remaining challenges and opportunities. As set out in our Music Plan, published on 13 July, we support the industry's leadership on this so far, with the LIVE Trust already having distributed £1.5 million to vital initiatives. However, we want to see uptake increase further, and we have consistently said that we are prepared to explore legislative options if required.

We recognise the impact on public interest news publishers of generative AI platforms and services, including AI assistants and answer engines, which risk diverting audiences and advertising revenue by presenting news summaries which limit the need to click through to news websites.

As set out in our Local Media Action Plan, published in March, these summaries can also be inaccurate or misleading, with one recent study finding that 81% of news-related responses from AI assistants contained issues relating to accuracy, editorialisation, sourcing errors or limited contextualisation. These summaries also risk distorting the market by drawing on a narrow range of prominent newsbrands. Over the long term, this risks further commercial harm to local media and other news providers, to public trust in news as a whole, and to the quality of news accessed by citizens.

The Action Plan committed to helping news providers adapt to the emerging challenges of AI-generated news summaries, and supporting a healthy licensing ecosystem while also working with industry to ensure proportionate transparency. We want to support all rights holders, including news publishers, to be able to license their work in the digital age, while allowing AI developers to benefit from access to creative material in the UK. Our taskforce on AI labelling will put forward proposals for Government on best practice to ensure consumers understand whether content has been made using AI. Alongside this, we will also publish a review of the mechanisms available for creators to control their works online. This will include standards, technical solutions and best practice on input transparency. This review will inform where there are gaps and whether there is an appropriate role for government in addressing them.

This builds on other work already underway in this area. The CMA recently imposed the first Conduct Requirement under the Digital Markets regime on publisher controls in Google Search and search advertising, aiming to ensure transparency, attribution and choice for publishers in how their content is used in Google’s AI services. We also welcome the news industry’s proactive efforts to address concerns in this area, including through the Standards for Publisher Usage Rights (SPUR) coalition, which is focused on bridging the gap between news publishers and AI developers and developing shared industry standards. SPUR has recently published a draft of a Content Telemetry standard, an open standard which enables publishers and content owners to directly understand how AI systems are using their content.

The Government is committed to growing the UK screen sector across all nations. Glasgow, identified as a high-potential creative cluster in the Creative Industries Sector Plan, is well placed to benefit from the Government's £75 million Screen Growth Package.

This includes the UK Global Screen Fund, with Scottish-led co-productions securing significant awards and Screen Scotland contributing to the Fund's Advisory Board. The British Film Institute also supports Scotland's screen sector through UK-wide funding, including the National Lottery Skills Cluster, which helps address skills and crew shortages.

We are also investing in skills through the National Film and Television School, including its Glasgow hub at BBC Scotland's Pacific Quay and the Edinburgh-based Sean Connery Talent Lab. This complements our refreshed £9 million Creative Careers Programme, which was piloted in Scotland.

We continue to work with Screen Scotland and the wider sector to strengthen screen production across Scotland and the UK, supported by stable and competitive tax reliefs that benefit all nations. The BBC Charter Review also provides an opportunity to support the BBC's central role in Scotland's screen economy.

Football reaches communities like nothing else. The department is working with partners to develop the largest-ever UEFA EURO Community Programme, backed by a social impact fund of around £45 million, which will ensure the impact supports communities far beyond the tournament itself. Plans for the programme and fund are in development, and more details will be shared in due course.