Tag: 2026

The press release issued by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology on 12 May 2026.

Primary school children and teachers set to gain AI and digital skills as North East AI Growth Zone Taskforce meets to drive local opportunity.

• 30,000 local primary school children to gain AI and digital tech skills thanks to new funding from North East mayor
• 1,000 teachers backed to teach AI and 150 work placements to keep talent in North East
• Technology Secretary praises ‘strong partnerships’ driving AI Growth Zone Taskforce as billions of pounds invested and further support pledged to upskill women

Tens of thousands of young people and workers across the North East will gain new skills and career opportunities as a result of investment unlocked by the region’s AI Growth Zone, helping residents secure good jobs and local businesses grow.

Announced today (Tuesday 12 May) at the second meeting of the North East AI Growth Zone Taskforce, the package shows how the AI Growth Zone is delivering real benefits for communities – turning AI investment into skills, jobs and opportunity on the ground.

The North East mayor will back the effort with a new £750,000 investment in the government’s TechFirst programme, that will specifically ensure 30,000 primary school children benefit from early AI and digital skills. This will include ‘discovery days’ and local businesses engaging with schools to outline career paths and explain the wider benefits of AI – so children who will grow up with the technology as it develops are given a solid grounding to apply it in their lives.

This follows £1.5 million invested by the government in the North East through the programme, as part of a wider ambition to help 1 million young people from across the UK to benefit directly from the growth of AI, rather than being left behind.

For the first time, the mayor and government have also agreed a regional target – with 80,000 local students in the North East to benefit from the training until 2029.

This will be further complemented by commitments to support 1,000 local teachers to confidently teach AI while the Authority will deliver 150 local work placements, giving young people real experience and reasons to stay and work in the North East.

Speaking at the meeting today, Technology Secretary Liz Kendall said the AI Growth Zone is about more than technology – it is about ensuring growth reaches every part of the region. She praised the ‘stronger partnerships, new opportunities for local communities, and shared sense of purpose’ developing in the area since the Taskforce’s launch in September.

Meanwhile the North East Mayor Kim McGuinness has published the North East AI Growth Zone Prospectus for consultation, which sets out how it will build on the AI Growth Zone to support skills, adoption and innovation.

This includes proposals for creating good jobs, backing local talent, helping businesses adopt new technologies with confidence, and making sure the advantages of AI are not locked up in a few places, but spread across our towns, cities and communities.

As one part of this SAGE, Accenture and other leading businesses will come together to provide mentoring and leadership to help more women build long term careers in tech.

The AI Growth Zone has attracted major private investment, including £10 billion committed by QTS/Blackstone to build its new data centre with the potential to support up to 5,000 high‑quality jobs rooted in the North East.

Elsewhere the team behind Sovereign AI – a £500 million first-of-its-kind national effort to back Britain’s smartest founders and keep the future of AI built on British shores –  are hosting an event in Newcastle today, inviting some of the North East’s most ambitious AI startups to share their growth plans and ambitions, helping government support those driving growth and innovation in the region.

Science and Technology Secretary Liz Kendall said:

The North East is already showing how AI can deliver for working people, with billions of pounds invested and thousands of new jobs on the way, as businesses and government work together to make the region a leader in Britain’s AI future.

We’re investing in that progress for the long term. By giving young people the AI skills they need, supporting start-ups and acting to bring more women into tech we can keep talent and opportunity in the North East.

North East Mayor Kim McGuinness said:

The North East is the one to watch when it comes to cutting-edge tech and AI as we work to make sure everyone benefits from our AI growth zone.     

We’re already working closely with local employers, training providers and schools to make the North East the best place to live, work and thrive when it comes to tech.

But we know we need to go further to make sure local people really benefit from more opportunities than ever before. That’s why we’re investing in training so our young people can make the most of the exciting opportunities around AI and working with some of the region’s brightest companies to support more women and girls in the tech sector.

Leading software company Sage is also boosting its work to widen access to AI skills and supporting innovation led by women across the region through 2 new partnerships. Working with Empowering You, as the founding partner of Empowering Women to Lead AI in Northern England, it will support women in the region to develop leadership skills in AI through workshops, coaching and group presentations.

In partnership with Techbible, an AI company focused on helping businesses manage their AI tools, it will host a hackathon at its headquarters in June, which will bring together women from businesses across the region to build and deploy AI agents, with no prior coding experience required.

Jonathan Cowan, EVP Product at Sage, said:

The North East has everything it needs to become the UK’s next major tech cluster, combining world‑class academic institutions, deep technical talent and a growing community of innovative businesses.

Through the AI Growth Zone, we have a real opportunity to support small businesses and strengthen the region’s role on the global AI stage. Sage is proud to play its part in our home region, including through partnerships that widen access to AI skills.

Notes to editors

• NECA are investing £750,000 each to expand TechFirst. It builds on £1.5m committed to the programme in the North East by the government over 3 years.
• The Sovereign AI roadshow will be in Newcastle on 12 May for an afternoon event hosted at Atom Bank, as part of its UK-wide engagement tour connecting with AI founders and ecosystems across the country.

The press release issued by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology on 12 May 2026.

UK businesses are being urged to strengthen their cyber defences against fast-evolving AI-enabled threats.

• Businesses encouraged to sign Cyber Resilience Pledge to strengthen defences against fast-evolving AI-enabled threats 
• New figures show UK cyber security sector revenue has risen 11% to £14.7 billion, with firms up 20% to 2,603 
• Cyber Security and Resilience Bill to continue through Parliament following the King’s Speech, demonstrating the government’s long-term commitment to strengthen Britain’s foundations and build a more resilient country 

Businesses across the UK are being urged to strengthen their cyber defences, as the government takes action to protect the economy and essential services people rely on every day from fast-evolving cyber threats. 

As part of a wider push to shore up the UK’s cyber defences, ministers are urging organisations across the economy to boost their resilience by signing up to a Cyber Resilience Pledge. 

The pledge, launching later this year, sets out 3 concrete actions organisations can take to improve their cyber security: 

• making cyber security a board-level responsibility 
• signing up to the National Cyber Security Centre’s free Early Warning Service 
• require Cyber Essentials certification across their supply chains – the UK government-backed cyber security standard that blocks the most common cyber threats.

Together, these steps help businesses reduce risk, protect customers and build confidence across the wider economy. 

Ministers have written directly to some of the UK’s leading companies inviting them to sign up to the Cyber Resilience Pledge, and organisations are now encouraged to review the requirements and commit. The government is backing this shift with £90 million towards improving cyber resilience across the economy. 

The push comes as the Cyber Security and Resilience Bill will continue its passage through Parliament following the King’s Speech, demonstrating the government’s long-term commitment to protect critical national infrastructure, support economic growth and reduce the risk of disruption to essential services such as energy, water, healthcare and data centres. 

New figures published today also show the strength of the UK’s cyber security sector, which grew 11% last year to £14.7 billion, with the number of firms rising by 20% to 2,603 – underlining the UK’s position as a global cyber security leader and a fast‑growing engine of the economy. 

The sector created 2,300 jobs in the past year alone, reflecting rising demand for British cyber expertise as businesses and public services invest in stronger protection against increasingly sophisticated threats, including those enabled by AI. 

Ministers have warned that the threats businesses face in cyber space are changing, and the way they respond must change with it. A new generation of AI models is lowering the barrier for cyber criminals, enabling them to find vulnerabilities and carry out attacks at a speed and scale that would have been impossible even a year ago. Recent figures show 43% of UK businesses experienced a cyber breach or attack in the past year, underlining the urgency of action. 

The importance of taking action has been highlighted by recent research by the AI Security Institute, looking at frontier models like Mythos and GPT 5.5. Ministers are warning that traditional cyber protections alone are no longer enough. As AI accelerates the pace and scale of cyber attacks, organisations must now invest in smarter, more resilient systems that can limit the impact of breaches and keep ahead of attackers – rather than constantly reacting after the damage is done. 

The UK is not standing still in response to this threat. We have built the AI Security Institute, the most advanced capability of any government in the world for understanding frontier AI systems. This ensures that your government can have an independently verified, robust assessment of current capabilities.  

More broadly, the National Cyber Security Centre, part of GCHQ, is world-leading in defending the UK online, and continues to publish practical guidance every business can use.   

Cyber Security Minister Baroness Lloyd said: 

Cyber security is now fundamental to economic growth, job creation and the resilience of the services people rely on every day. 

The UK has a world‑class cyber sector that is creating skilled jobs and protecting our economy – and government is doing more by investing in its own defences, legislating to require more of essential services and setting clear national standards. 

As threats evolve, businesses of all sizes need to step up and take practical action now. The Cyber Resilience Pledge is a clear call for companies to strengthen their defences, protect their customers and play their part in keeping the UK secure and competitive.

CEOs are urged to harness the expertise and innovation of UK cyber startups, building partnerships that drive the development and adoption of advanced solutions, such as memory-safe systems that are significantly less vulnerable, to keep our economy ahead of adversaries. 

Cyber security for AI is itself also an emerging growth area, with the number of UK firms offering cyber security products or services for AI up 68% in 2025 compared to the previous year – reinforcing the UK’s position as both a leader in innovation and a responder to new threats.