Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, with reference to Government grants statistics 2020 to 2021, published on 31 March 2022, what assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of the Dynamo Cyber Skills Pilot Cluster Project 2021 Grant.

This grant supported the delivery of the National Cyber Security Strategy, specifically the objective to create the right ecosystem in the UK to develop and sustain a cyber security sector that can meet our national security demands. Specifically, this pilot supported the growth of the sector outside London and the southeast.

This grant funding was used by the Northeast cyber security cluster to gather insight into the cyber skills gap in the northeast of England. The cluster engaged with local industry, the education sector and local government through a series of events in early 2021. The output of this project was a series of recommendations that continue to form the basis of the NE cluster’s skills outreach within the region.