John Howell
Main Page: John Howell (Conservative - Henley)Department Debates - View all John Howell's debates with the Cabinet Office
(6 years, 9 months ago)
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John Howell (Henley) (Con)
6. What steps the Government are taking to ensure the cyber-security of public and private sector organisations.
Victoria Prentis (Banbury) (Con)
10. What steps the Government are taking to ensure the cyber-security of public and private sector organisations.
John Howell
There seems to be a misleading impression that IT and cyber-security are of interest only to boys. What are the Government doing to encourage women to take part?
Caroline Nokes
My hon. Friend makes an important point. Only 10% of the global cyber workforce is female. That represents a huge pool of untapped talent. As part of our ambitious plans to transform the nation’s cyber capabilities, we have launched new initiatives, such as the incredibly successful CyberFirst Girls competition to encourage young women to pursue a career in the industry—it has more than 8,000 participants. We also want business to do more to encourage women into that exciting and rewarding sector.