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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government (1) how many additional cybersecurity experts they estimate are needed to implement the National Cyber Security Strategy, (2) what priority is being given to the education and training of cybersecurity experts, and (3) what is being done to encourage young people to study computer sciences at university and to recruit them to the cybersecurity industry.

The National Cyber Security Strategy 2016 -2020 outlines the government’s ambition to deliver a self-sustaining pipeline of talent providing the skills to meet our national needs across the public and private sectors.

Ensuring the UK has the cyber security experts it needs is a key government priority and much work was done to improve required skills at every level of education under the first 2011 - 2015 National Cyber Security Strategy. However ambitious new initiatives are still needed and being prioritised under the new strategy. This includes a national schools programme to provide intensive after-school training and mentoring; establishing cyber apprenticeships in critical sectors; and a re-training programme to attract and support people to transition into cyber security mid-career. To identify additional actions we will also develop a self-standing cyber skills strategy that will build on our existing work

In universities we have ensured cyber security is an integral part of all computer science degrees accredited by the Institution of Engineering & Technology and British Computer Society. GCHQ have also established a certification programme, certifying nearly 20 courses to date, that will help students identify high-quality course to undertake in order to pursue a cyber security career