Department for Science, Innovation & Technology

DSIT has a stated mission to deploy an advanced UK quantum network at scale by 2035, supported through several funding initiatives in Scotland.

DSIT funds the academic Integrated Quantum Networks (IQN) Hub led by Herriot-Watt University, and has committed £8m funding to the Fraunhofer Centre for Applied Photonics in Glasgow.

DSIT funds university Centres for Doctoral Training in Quantum Informatics (Edinburgh) and Applied Quantum Technologies (Strathclyde, Glasgow, and Heriot-Watt).

In March 2026, we announced over £1bn investment in UK quantum technology development over the next 4 years, with £125m dedicated for Quantum Networking - including a £20m UKRI funding competition on “Enabling Commercial Quantum Networking” that opened on 14th April.

Since the announcement of the North East AI Growth Zone, there has been no change to energy pricing or the regulatory environment in the UK. We engage regularly with developers and other stakeholders for the North East AI Growth Zone and are encouraged that Cobalt Park are in discussions with a number of alternative offtake customers. The success of the AI Growth Zones programme is not contingent on any single investor. Five AIGZs have been designated with the potential to deliver £28 billion of investment from a diverse range of developers.

The Government is delivering an ambitious policy package to support build-out of AI infrastructure in the UK. DSIT will set up a dedicated AI Growth Zone Delivery Unit providing a single point of contact for investors, accelerated planning and grid connection support, long-term business rates retention for host local authorities, and targeted energy pricing support.

We are continuing to create the right conditions for investment in the UK’s AI and data centre infrastructure work with leading AI companies to strengthen UK compute capacity.

Work to increase the visibility of available alternative methods to facilitate their uptake will be led by the NC3Rs and delivered through an expansion of their gateway publishing platform, so that it is available to all researchers developing alternative methods. Work is underway to identify and collate UKRI-funded alternative methods for inclusion on the gateway. The strategy aims for this expanded platform to be in place by the end of 2026.

The Government will publish a delivery update, alongside key performance indicators on progress across all elements of the strategy, later in 2026.

Ofcom’s online safety budget and expert team ensure its duties can be performed effectively. Ofcom has spent approximately £281.3 million on online safety since 2020, including a projected spend of £92 million for 2025/26.

The Online Safety Act provides Ofcom with a range of enforcement powers, including business disruption measures, which can include fast tracked interim service restriction orders or access restriction orders, where necessary. These measures are sanctions of last resort, available where serious non‑compliance persists.

The Secretary of State has written to Ofcom to underline the Government’s full support for the regulator using all the powers Parliament has provided it.

Ofcom is independent, and early enforcement activity is already helping to prevent and address illegal content online.

Ofcom’s online safety budget and expert team ensure its duties can be performed effectively. Ofcom has spent approximately £281.3 million on online safety since 2020, including a projected spend of £92 million for 2025/26.

The Online Safety Act provides Ofcom with a range of enforcement powers, including business disruption measures, which can include fast tracked interim service restriction orders or access restriction orders, where necessary. These measures are sanctions of last resort, available where serious non‑compliance persists.

The Secretary of State has written to Ofcom to underline the Government’s full support for the regulator using all the powers Parliament has provided it.

Ofcom is independent, and early enforcement activity is already helping to prevent and address illegal content online.

UKRI is leading the commitment to publish Areas of Research Interest for alternative methods.

The strategy commits to initiating this work in the first half of 2026, with discussions now happening between the Medical Research Council (MRC), the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), and the National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3Rs) to agree the approach.

The Government will publish a delivery update, alongside key performance indicators on progress across all elements of the strategy, later in 2026.

The government is engaging insurers and brokers to encourage clear, proportionate conversations about cyber risk and good cyber hygiene. Insurers typically take risk‑based approaches to underwriting and the government is encouraging the inclusion of fundamental cyber security measures, such as Cyber Essentials.

Data backups are a key part of the cyber incident response and recovery process and are critical to an organisation’s cyber resilience. The Cyber Essentials scheme focuses on defensive technical controls to prevent the most common cyber threats by stopping attackers gaining access. Data backup is not preventative, and therefore not a requirement for the scheme. However, the Cyber Essentials guidance makes clear that data backup is essential for recovery following a successful attack and strongly encourages organisations to implement a backup solution. The scheme is continually reviewed to ensure the controls remain appropriate and effective.

Science diplomacy plays an important role in building UK technology sovereignty through international partnerships with partners which strengthen our shared capabilities, resilience and security.

Our Science & Technology Network, covering 65 locations, is a core pillar of the UK’s science diplomacy toolkit, which aims to develop and strengthen our partnership with international partners.

We have science and technology partnerships with a broad range of countries including the US and EU, Japan, India, South Korea, Switzerland, France and Germany. We are also active members of multilateral fora including OECD, G7 and G20. These partnerships are part of helping us ensure sovereign strengths and strengths through stable collaboration.

Work to increase the visibility of available alternative methods to facilitate their uptake is led by the NC3Rs and delivered through an expansion of their gateway publishing platform, so that it is available to all researchers developing alternative methods. Work is underway to identify and collate UKRI-funded alternative methods for inclusion on the gateway. The strategy aims for this expanded platform to be in place by the end of 2026.

The Government will publish a delivery update, alongside key performance indicators on progress across all elements of the strategy, later in 2026.

The strategy aims to improve animal research approval and dissemination mechanisms, to better assess where alternative methods can be used. This work is being taken forward through the commitments set out under the Discovery Research Themes, with activities to be initiated during 2026–27.

The Government will publish a delivery update later in 2026, alongside key performance indicators setting out progress across all elements of the strategy.

The department offers apprenticeships to internal staff as part of our learning and development offer. Since the original PQ, our records have updated to reflect an additional apprenticeship completion in 2025. We therefore now have 58 members of DSIT staff that are either currently undertaking an apprenticeship or have completed an apprenticeship between 2023 and 2025. (GOV.UK). This information is obtained from our Apprenticeship Employer Account on GOV.UK.

Year by year breakdown:

The Government is working with industry partners to develop appropriate data sharing frameworks to support the safe and responsible development of AI methods.

The Office for Life Sciences is working with the Regulatory Innovation Office to explore opportunities to support innovation in AI within existing regulatory frameworks.
The Preclinical Translational Models Hub, will include opportunities to utilise AI enabled approaches where appropriate.

The Government will publish a delivery update, alongside key performance indicators covering progress across all elements of the strategy, later in 2026.

The Government is working with industry partners to develop appropriate data sharing frameworks to support the safe and responsible development of AI methods.

The Office for Life Sciences is working with the Regulatory Innovation Office to explore opportunities to support innovation in AI within existing regulatory frameworks.
The Preclinical Translational Models Hub, will include opportunities to utilise AI enabled approaches where appropriate.

The Government will publish a delivery update, alongside key performance indicators covering progress across all elements of the strategy, later in 2026.

Decisions on investment are a matter for private companies. The Government has been clear that it will encourage and support investments that will enable UK firms and people to benefit. Many of the large-scale AI infrastructure projects in the UK have been publicly announced, with most of these having press releases available on Gov.uk. The Government continues to engage across the board on these investments to ensure that they deliver the best outcomes for the UK.

While DSIT acts as the ICO’s sponsor department within government, it is an independent regulator and accountable to Parliament. The ICO reports annually to Parliament on its complaints and investigations, and the Information Commissioner can appear before select committees to discuss performance.

To address their backlog, the ICO has introduced a new data protection complaints framework that sets out how it assesses each case and determines the extent to which it is appropriate to investigate. This will allow the ICO to review every complaint individually against its criteria, to decide whether they can provide an outcome at this stage or need to investigate it in more detail. This approach is designed to help the ICO focus its resources on the most serious issues, provide more timely outcomes, and support organisations in improving compliance.

We will monitor the impact of the increased number of complaints being received by the ICO as part of our regular sponsorship discussions, to ensure the ICO can meet its statutory obligations effectively.

The Ministerial Alternative Methods Strategy Delivery Group met for the first time in March and is scheduled to meet quarterly, with the next meeting due to take place in June.

The delivery of the commitment to develop out relationships with international regulators sits with the Office for Life Sciences.

The Government is ensuring the UK is a global leader in alternative methods by strengthening regulatory confidence through MHRA reform and investing in validation infrastructure and skills, supporting UK leadership by setting international benchmarks for how alternative methods are developed, assessed and adopted. We are also currently scoping opportunities for international engagement on a multilateral and bilateral level.

The Government will publish a delivery update, alongside key performance indicators, on progress across all elements of the strategy, in 2026.

The delivery of the commitment to develop out relationships with international regulators sits with the Office for Life Sciences.

The Government is ensuring the UK is a global leader in alternative methods by strengthening regulatory confidence through MHRA reform and investing in validation infrastructure and skills, supporting UK leadership by setting international benchmarks for how alternative methods are developed, assessed and adopted. We are also currently scoping opportunities for international engagement on a multilateral and bilateral level.

The Government will publish a delivery update, alongside key performance indicators, on progress across all elements of the strategy, in 2026.

The delivery of the commitment to develop out relationships with international regulators sits with the Office for Life Sciences.

The Government is ensuring the UK is a global leader in alternative methods by strengthening regulatory confidence through MHRA reform and investing in validation infrastructure and skills, supporting UK leadership by setting international benchmarks for how alternative methods are developed, assessed and adopted. We are also currently scoping opportunities for international engagement on a multilateral and bilateral level.

The Government will publish a delivery update, alongside key performance indicators, on progress across all elements of the strategy, in 2026.

The analogue Public Switched Telephone Network’s (PSTN) replacement technology is Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). Ofcom have confirmed that VoIP technology enables communication providers to offer consumers and businesses clearer and better-quality phone calls and additional features. VoIP can also be used to block scam calls (BT Digital Voice blocks over 17,000 scam calls every day).

Ofcom, the independent regulator, is responsible for assessing VoIP services, and has done so since the early 2000’s. Whilst Ofcom are responsible for regulating communication providers, the Government has acted to ensure consumers are protected during the upgrade. In March 2026, major communication providers and network operators signed the Fixed Telecoms Modernisation Charter to enhance protections for customers during any telecoms modernisation, including the PSTN migration to VoIP.

Landlines are not being removed. The technology underpinning the analogue landline network, the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), is being upgraded to digital Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP).

In order to function correctly, VoIP requires a minimum connection speed of just 0.5 megabytes per second. It is possible to order a VoIP landline without purchasing a broadband connection.

In November 2024, the Government secured additional safeguards from the telecoms industry. These include the provision of free battery back-ups for vulnerable and landline dependent customers to ensure access to emergency services go beyond the Ofcom’s minimum requirement of one hour in a power outage. Many communication providers have gone further, providing battery back-ups of 4-7 hours, with back-up time for VoIP-only connections likely to be at the higher end of this range as the battery run-time is primarily driven by power consumption.

In March 2026, the Government and industry agreed a new Fixed Telecoms Charter to extend these safeguards to all future fixed telecoms modernisation programmes.

Responsibility for delivery of the UK Centre for the Validation of Alternative Methods (UKCVAM) sits with the Office for Life Sciences. The strategy commits to the establishment of the Centre by the end of 2026, with delivery activity continuing beyond that point. Proposals for the Centre are currently in development, and a UKCVAM Advisory Board meeting took place this month. The Government will publish a delivery update, alongside key performance indicators on progress across all elements of the strategy, later in 2026.

Responsibility for delivery of the UK Centre for the Validation of Alternative Methods (UKCVAM) sits with the Office for Life Sciences. The strategy commits to the establishment of the Centre by the end of 2026, with delivery activity continuing beyond that point. Proposals for the Centre are currently in development, and a UKCVAM Advisory Board meeting took place this month. The Government will publish a delivery update, alongside key performance indicators on progress across all elements of the strategy, later in 2026.

Improving the cyber security of our nation's small businesses is critical to the resilience of our wider economy. We recognise many small businesses lack the resources to invest in their cyber security. As such, the government has developed a wide range of free tools, guidance and training to help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) implement cyber security measures, including the Cyber Action Toolkit which provides SMEs with tailored advice on protecting their business.

National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC)-certified Cyber Advisors are available to provide advice and guidance on commercial terms and SMEs are eligible for a free 30- minute consultation. Additionally, the government's Cyber Essentials scheme helps all organisations, including SMEs, implement critical cyber security controls, protecting them from most common cyber attacks and provides them with free insurance. All of this information is available on the NCSC website.

More broadly across government, the Home Office funds a network of Cyber Resilience Centres which provide free resources, guidance and training to SMEs to strengthen their cyber security.

The Government takes children’s safety and privacy very seriously. In most circumstances, filming people, including children, in public places is lawful and reflects rights to freedom of expression. However, these rights are not absolute and must be balanced against the right to privacy, with particular weight given where a child’s interests may be affected. Filming that is indecent or amounts to harassment or stalking is a criminal offence. Where data protection legislation applies, its requirements must be complied with (e.g. processing must be lawful, fair and transparent). The Information Commissioner’s Office enforces this legislation and must have regard to the specific protection afforded to children’s personal data.

The Network and Information Systems Regulations 2018 provides the UK’s only cross-sector cyber legislation, focused on protecting the security and resilience of essential services. The regulations impose security duties on Operators of Essential Services (OES) and relevant digital service providers (RDSPs) to take "appropriate and proportionate technical and organisational measures" to manage risk and prevent and minimise the impact of cyber incidents.

The Cyber Security and Resilience (Network and Information Systems) Bill, introduced in November 2025, updates these regulations to ensure it is fit for today, and the future. It will cover a wider range of critically important entities, including data centres and large load controllers and relevant managed service providers (RMSPs). The Bill will also allow, through secondary legislation, for security and resilience requirements to be set for regulated entities. Our proposals for this legislation will be linked to existing, high level security duties and be consistent with the NCSC’s Cyber Assessment Framework.

Regulators will also have the power under the Bill to designate certain suppliers as “critical” if a compromise or outage in their systems can cause a disruption to their services that would have serious, cascading impacts for our society and economy. Proportionate cyber security and resilience duties and requirements to applying to those designated suppliers, with associated requirements will be developed through secondary legislation and guidance. This will ensure that these critical suppliers have the appropriate cyber security and resilience measures in place, helping to protect the UK’s critical infrastructure from disruption.

The Bill sits alongside other regulatory regimes, such as for public telecoms providers and financial services, and a range of other tools to help organisations actively improve their cyber resilience. For example, the government offers the Cyber Essentials certification scheme to prevent the most common cyber attacks. Organisations with Cyber Essentials are 92% less likely to make a claim on their cyber insurance than those without it.

The strategy sets out seven commitments to increase confidence in the validation and regulatory uptake of alternative methods.

On 24 March, the MHRA announced it will offer early regulatory review of non animal data, including data generated using in silico approaches, to provide clarity on how such data will be assessed ahead of clinical trials. MHRA is the first UK regulator to offer this service, setting a precedent which the Government expects other regulators to follow.

The Government will publish a delivery update, including the regulatory elements of the strategy, later in 2026.

The strategy sets out seven commitments to increase confidence in the validation and regulatory uptake of alternative methods.

On 24 March, the MHRA announced it will offer early regulatory review of non animal data, including data generated using in silico approaches, to provide clarity on how such data will be assessed ahead of clinical trials. MHRA is the first UK regulator to offer this service, setting a precedent which the Government expects other regulators to follow.

The Government will publish a delivery update, including the regulatory elements of the strategy, later in 2026.

The Online Safety Act lists certain fraud offences as ‘priority offences’, meaning regulated services must already prevent users encountering user-generated fraudulent content, swiftly remove it if it appears, and mitigate and manage the risk of their services facilitating fraud. Ofcom, the independent regulator, has robust powers to act if it finds services are failing in their regulatory duties.

Services designated as Category 1 and 2A (large user-to-user and large search services respectively) will have additional duties to tackle paid-for fraudulent advertising. Ofcom aims to publish its register and consult on the additional duties – including on fraudulent advertising – in summer 2026.

The Department engages regularly with Ofcom on the implementation of the Online Safety Act. Decisions about enforcement action are a matter for Ofcom alone, acting independently and in line with its statutory duties. Ofcom has a current active investigation into X.

The government has separately tabled an amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill to allow the government to close gaps in the Online Safety Act and bring unregulated AI services into scope.

The Government published the Modern Industrial Strategy in June 2025. Drawing on extensive analysis and stakeholder engagement, it set out our priorities and actions for supporting business and sectors to grow, including through adopting technologies. There are no plans for a further digital industrial strategy. The Government is also progressing the recommendations of the Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Digital Adoption Taskforce.

For the public sector, the Roadmap for Modern Digital Government and the Government Cyber Action Plan set out cross-government efforts to replace outdated legacy systems, build data-sharing platforms, strengthen cyber security, and invest in long-term capability in the workforce.

It is crucial every woman and girl can access trusted health information online. The government is committed to promoting trusted sources of health information. The Online Safety Act does not prevent adults or children from accessing legal content about women’s health. The largest services will also have additional duties meaning they cannot arbitrarily remove content. Users will also have access to effective complaints procedures to appeal when content is unduly taken down. DSIT will continue to engage with Ofcom and industry to ensure the Online Safety Act is being implemented as we expect.

The government is committed to tackling extremism in all its forms, and we constantly review our understanding of emerging radicalising threats to our society.

Under the Online Safety Act, platforms must tackle illegal content, including terrorist content and that which stirs up hatred based on religion or race. They must also protect children from additional forms of legal content, including hateful or abusive content.

We are committed to keeping our online safety regime under review to ensure it keeps up with rapidly evolving harms.

We are focused on continuing to create the right conditions for investment in the UK’s AI and data centre infrastructure.

Through the AI Energy Council, we are already bringing together energy system bodies and leading technology companies, including NESO, EDF, Microsoft and Google, to address the energy implications of AI growth and ensure the system is ready to support future demand.

Alongside this, the Government is bringing forward a consultation on discounting data centres' energy costs for eligible projects in areas with excess electricity supply, including Scotland, Cumbria and the North East.

The government is committed to building a digitally skilled workforce to support long-term economic growth, drive innovation and expand individual opportunity. As part of this ambition, DSIT has launched the AI Skills Boost campaign to upskill 10 million workers in AI skills by 2030, and our industry partners deliver these courses at no cost to government. Since June 2025, this initiative has delivered more than 1 million free AI training courses to workers across the UK, and the Government continues to track delivery.

The government runs monitoring & evaluation for all government-funded AI training courses to track participation and assess the delivery and impact of funded programmes. This includes the AI and Data Science Conversion Courses, the Flexible AI Upskilling Fund pilot, and several digital apprenticeships and Skills Bootcamps that offer AI-related training courses. Given the nascency of the sector, monitoring and evaluation of most of these programmes is currently ongoing. Data on participation and completion rates for these apprenticeships and Skills Bootcamps can be found on the Explore Education Statistics GOV.UK Service.

The government is committed to building a digitally skilled workforce to support long-term economic growth, drive innovation and expand individual opportunity. As part of this ambition, DSIT has launched the AI Skills Boost campaign to upskill 10 million workers in AI skills by 2030, and our industry partners deliver these courses at no cost to government. Since June 2025, this initiative has delivered more than 1 million free AI training courses to workers across the UK, and the Government continues to track delivery.

The government runs monitoring & evaluation for all government-funded AI training courses to track participation and assess the delivery and impact of funded programmes. This includes the AI and Data Science Conversion Courses, the Flexible AI Upskilling Fund pilot, and several digital apprenticeships and Skills Bootcamps that offer AI-related training courses. Given the nascency of the sector, monitoring and evaluation of most of these programmes is currently ongoing. Data on participation and completion rates for these apprenticeships and Skills Bootcamps can be found on the Explore Education Statistics GOV.UK Service.

The government is committed to building a digitally skilled workforce to support long-term economic growth, drive innovation and expand individual opportunity. As part of this ambition, DSIT has launched the AI Skills Boost campaign to upskill 10 million workers in AI skills by 2030, and our industry partners deliver these courses at no cost to government. Since June 2025, this initiative has delivered more than 1 million free AI training courses to workers across the UK, and the Government continues to track delivery.

The government runs monitoring & evaluation for all government-funded AI training courses to track participation and assess the delivery and impact of funded programmes. This includes the AI and Data Science Conversion Courses, the Flexible AI Upskilling Fund pilot, and several digital apprenticeships and Skills Bootcamps that offer AI-related training courses. Given the nascency of the sector, monitoring and evaluation of most of these programmes is currently ongoing. Data on participation and completion rates for these apprenticeships and Skills Bootcamps can be found on the Explore Education Statistics GOV.UK Service.

The delivery of the commitment to Create a preclinical translational models hub is led by the Medical Research Council (MRC).

The Preclinical translational models hub funding call to identify a host for the hub was launched on 2 March 2026 with decisions on this expected in July. The Hub is expected to commence work in Autumn 2026.

The Government will publish a delivery update, alongside key performance indicators on progress across all elements of the strategy, later in 2026.

The Government is committed to ensuring that any risks from the industry-led migration of the copper based Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) are mitigated for everyone across the UK.

In November 2024, the Government secured additional safeguards from the telecoms industry. These include the provision of free battery back-ups for vulnerable and landline dependent customers to ensure access to emergency services go beyond one hour in a power outage. Many communication providers have gone further, providing battery back-ups of 4-7 hours. This includes Vodafone, BT, KCOM, and Zen Internet. Ofcom, the telecoms regulator, are responsible for setting minimum standards.

In March 2026, the Government and industry agreed a new Fixed Telecoms Charter to extend these safeguards to all future fixed telecoms modernisation programmes.

The Intellectual Property Office is continuing to analyse responses to its consultation on Standard Essential Patents and will publish its response in due course.

The delivery of the commitment to strengthen the commitment of journal editors to publishing research using alternative methods sits with NC3Rs. 
 
As set out in the strategy, this work will be initiated at the start of 2027. To support this, NC3Rs will launch their DRIVER (Designing and Reporting In Vitro Experiments Responsibly) recommendations that underpin improved experimental design and reporting of in vitro studies in 2026.

The Government will publish a delivery update, alongside key performance indicators on progress across all elements of the strategy, later in 2026.

The delivery of the commitment to collect annual data on the number of clinical trial applications that include toxicity tests conducted in 2 species, sits with NC3Rs.

MHRA holds this data and NC3Rs are working with them on the best way to access and share this information. The strategy commits to first publish by mid-2026.

The Government will publish a delivery update, alongside key performance indicators on progress across all elements of the strategy, later in 2026.

Commitments in the strategy to build a skilled workforce, including early career researchers, to support the uptake of alternative methods are led by the NC3Rs.

This work is focusing on building capacity in the development and adoption of alternative methods through expanded NC3Rs-led 3Rs training, alongside targeted support for method developers and regulators. The aim is to deliver a workforce aligned with the UK’s ambitions and sector demand for non-animal methods.

The Government will publish a delivery update, alongside key performance indicators on progress across all elements of the strategy, later in 2026.

The government continually monitors developments across the market to understand how they may impact investment in comprehensive, high-quality mobile connectivity that is secure and affordable for consumers and business.

On 10 February, the Government published the Mobile Market Review call for evidence, inviting stakeholders to provide detailed evidence on how technological, structural and financial developments across the mobile ecosystem may impact investment, competition and consumer outcomes, and on what further actions Government could take to support these objectives.

The call for evidence closes on 5 May, and the Government encourages all relevant stakeholders to engage with the process to help inform future policy development.