Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether her Department has made a recent assessment of the impact of (a) the Upskill in Cyber, (b) Cyber First and (c) Cyber Explorers programme on the level of skills shortages in cyber security.

The Department has evaluated and developed the initial cohorts of the Upskill in Cyber, CyberFirst and Cyber Explorers programmes.

The Upskill in Cyber programme ran a pilot cohort in 2022 and has just commenced its second cohort. This has provided 400 individuals with an opportunity to upskill into a career in cyber security. The National Cyber Security Centre CyberFirst programme delivers a range of initiatives, in partnership with over 200 industry partners and this supports approximately 15,000 young people annually. This is alongside Cyber Explorers, which has now reached 51,937 students across 2,078 schools.

In order to close the annual shortfall of c.14,100 cyber professionals in the labour market, the government continues to engage closely with industry and academic partners to increase the range of opportunities available to individuals across all regions of the UK.