Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps she is taking to increase the number of businesses that apply for Cyber Essentials certification.

As part of the government's £2.6 billion National Cyber Strategy, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) is committed to improving cyber resilience across the economy and promoting the take-up of accreditations and standards such as the Cyber Essentials (CE) certification scheme. Over 122,000 certificates have now been issued over the lifetime of the scheme, with over 25,000 organisations, including over a third of the UK’s largest organisations, currently holding either a CE or CE Plus certificate.

DSIT is working closely with the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), other government departments and industry to increase the uptake of the CE scheme, including through requiring CE certification from suppliers using procurement levers. For example DSIT recently announced a partnership with St James’s Place which now requires its partners to be CE Plus certified.

The NCSC is also leading a three year funding programme, providing support to help organisations work towards certification. Over the past three months 369 support packages have been awarded to small legal aid firms and charities.

Research to date has found 93% of organisations with CE are confident of protection against common cyber attacks, compared to just 71% of non-certified organisations and 83% report a positive impact on customer and investor confidence. Further research is being undertaken to assess the impact of the scheme and will be published shortly.