Asked by: Gordon McKee (Labour - Glasgow South)
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 help improve the recruitment and retention of cybersecurity specialists.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Jointly with the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Technology)
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.
Asked by: Gordon McKee (Labour - Glasgow South)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment she has made of the potential operational and national-security risks arising from government departments deploying a small number of cloud-service providers.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Jointly with the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Technology)
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.
Asked by: Gordon McKee (Labour - Glasgow South)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps the Department is taking with employers to ensure that qualifications and digital badges earned through the AI Skills Boost programme are recognised in recruitment and workplace progression.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Jointly with the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Technology)
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.
Asked by: Gordon McKee (Labour - Glasgow South)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps her Department is taking with the Department for Work and Pensions and Ofcom to identify people eligible for broadband social tariffs and notify them automatically of that eligibility.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Jointly with the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Technology)
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.
Asked by: Gordon McKee (Labour - Glasgow South)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, how many civil servants employed in digital, data and technology roles are based in the Glasgow City Region; and what plans she has to increase that number.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport)
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.
Asked by: Gordon McKee (Labour - Glasgow South)
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 help protect the public from harmful deepfake content.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Jointly with the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Technology)
Under the Online Safety Act, deepfake content is regulated when it is shared on an in-scope service and meets the definition of either illegal content, or content which is harmful to children. The largest user-to-user services will also need to enforce their terms of service including in relation to AI generated content.
We have banned the creation of non-consensual sexual deepfakes, nudification apps, and criminalised AI models which have been optimised to create this content. We have updated the existing laws criminalising ‘paedophile manuals’ to cover the abuse of AI to produce Child Sexual Abuse Material.
We have also introduced new requirements on platforms and search services to remove non-consensual intimate images within 48 hours of a valid report and ensured that senior managers can be held criminally liable when platforms fail to meet their duties. We have also taken powers to bring currently unregulated chatbots within scope of the Online Safety Act’s illegal content duties.
We continue to explore technical solutions to support the transparency of AI-generated content, including through the Deepfake Detection Challenge, the AI Labelling Taskforce and media literacy work.
Asked by: Gordon McKee (Labour - Glasgow South)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what non-digital and assisted-digital routes are available to people who are unable to use GOV.UK One Login; and how the use of those routes is monitored.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport)
GOV.UK One Login has been designed as a digital service, and offers multiple ways for users to prove their identity. Users are able to use either the GOV.UK One Login app, answer security questions online, or visit the Post Office to prove their identity in-person. We continually monitor feedback, complaints and data to drive improvements.
While we expect GOV.UK One Login to become the primary method for accessing online government services, departments will continue to provide offline alternatives for users who are unable to prove their identity through GOV.UK One Login. Alternative routes are decided and monitored by the relevant government service.