Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to her Department's announcement entitled New boost to increase diversity in nation’s cyber security industry published on 14 August 2019, what target her Department has set on the number of people who will be assisted by the third round of funding from the Cyber Skills Immediate Impact Fund.

The Cyber Skills Immediate Impact Fund encourages a sector-led approach to stimulating the cyber security retraining ecosystem in a sustainable way. It is designed to increase the number and diversity of individuals pursuing a career in the cyber security profession. Launched in 2018, the Cyber Skills Immediate Impact Fund announced its third funding round on 14 August 2019.

We are currently running an open grant competition for proposed initiatives to apply for funding. We expect to support several new initiatives in this round of funding, working closely with employers to maximise the employment prospects of the individuals benefiting from the training programmes. Over 400 people have already benefited from training supported by previous funding rounds, and our objective is that greater numbers will benefit as the businesses we partner with further invest in this sector. The outcome of this programme will be reported in due course.