Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how many SME businesses have taken up the Government's Cyber Essentials scheme.

As of the end of December 2017, the number of Cyber Essentials certificates awarded to enterprises is 10,246. Just under 80% of these have been issued to SMEs.

Cyber Essentials is one of many ways in which the Government is supporting SMEs to improve their cyber security resilience. For example, the National Cyber Security Centre launched its Cyber Security Small Business Guide in October last year, which helps SMEs protect themselves from the most common cyber attacks.