Tag: Department for Science Innovation and Technology

The press release issued by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology on 7 July 2026.

Firms including M&S, Nationwide, ITV, Microsoft UK and Cloudflare are some of the first to pledge to strengthen their cyber defences.

• Firms including M&S, Nationwide, ITV, Microsoft UK and Cloudflare are some of the first to Pledge to strengthen their cyber defences 
• Signatories will take practical steps to strengthen their cyber resilience, including board-level oversight, use of National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) tools and stronger supply-chain security 
• Launch forms a central pillar of the government’s National Cyber Action Plan to raise cyber resilience across the UK economy – with cyber-attacks costing the UK £14.7 billion a year 

More than 60 businesses from every corner of the British economy, and strategic suppliers to government, have committed to strengthen their cyber defences as cyber threats grow in scale, frequency and sophistication.

Set to launch at 10 Downing Street later today (Tuesday 7 July), the new Cyber Resilience Pledge comes as businesses face an increasingly urgent threat environment – with over 5 million cyber crimes committed against UK firms last year – equivalent to 1 every 6 seconds (source: NCSC Annual Review 2025).

Hostile cyber activity in the UK continues to escalate, with the NCSC handling 204 nationally significant incidents in the year to September, up from 89 the year before. The average cost of a significant cyber-attack on an individual UK business now stands at almost £195,000, with the annual cost to organisations estimated at £14.7 billion, excluding wider disruption across the economy (source: Independent research on the economic impact of cyber attacks on the UK). 

The threat is also evolving. While AI provides new capabilities for defenders, it is also lowering the barriers for attackers – by helping them find weaknesses in software, write the code to exploit them, and do so at a speed and scale that would have been impossible even a year ago.

Founding signatories to the Pledge span retail, financial services, media, utilities and technology – including M&S, Nationwide, ITV, Microsoft UK, Cloudflare, Deloitte LLP, Accenture UK, Vodafone Group and VodafoneThree. 

The voluntary pledge, which has been designed for medium and large organisations but is open to organisations of all sizes and sectors, asks signatories to take 3 concrete actions to improve their cyber security: 

• Making cyber security a board-level responsibility, by implementing the Cyber Governance Code of Practice and ensuring all board members complete the NCSC’s Cyber Governance Training 
• Registering for the NCSC’s free Early Warning service, a tool that alerts organisations to potentially suspicious activity on their networks 
• Taking a risk-based approach to requiring the government-backed Cyber Essentials certification across their supply chain 

The Pledge will be formally launched at a reception at 10 Downing Street later today, hosted by Technology Secretary Liz Kendall and attended by founding signatories. 

Technology Secretary Liz Kendall said: 

Today, some of Britain’s biggest businesses are taking action to strengthen their cyber defences and setting a powerful example for others to follow. By signing this Pledge, they are showing that cyber resilience is no longer just an IT issue – it is a business imperative.

Cyber attacks can disrupt services, put customers’ data at risk and have a real impact on the bottom line. As AI makes these threats more sophisticated and easier to launch, no organisation can afford to stand still.

That’s why we’re working with businesses to help them strengthen their defences. The steps in this Pledge are practical, achievable and proven to make a difference. Today’s signatories are leading the way, and I encourage organisations across the UK to follow their example.

The launch comes ahead of the new National Cyber Action Plan, which will set out how the government will continue to work with industry to protect the nation from the cyber threats it faces in the AI era, including through investment in AI-powered defensive capabilities, the adoption of new secure technologies, and through new measures under the National Security Bill to tackle cyber crime. The Pledge is a central pillar of this work. 

Alongside the Pledge, DSIT has been developing a government Cyber Charter with its 39 strategic suppliers: companies that deliver critical services to the government. As part of that Charter, all of the strategic suppliers have been invited to sign the Pledge as an initial commitment to bolstering their cyber resilience, with more than 20 of them having done so as part of this first cohort of signatories. 

Darren Hardman, CEO, Microsoft UK and Ireland, said:

As AI reshapes both the threats we face and our response to them, stronger board-level accountability and supply chain security are how the UK stays ahead. Microsoft has been a cybersecurity partner to the UK Government for more than 20 years, and we’re proud to sign the Cyber Resilience Pledge, using AI to help defend the UK’s critical national infrastructure, public services and businesses against cyber attacks.

David Boda, Chief Security and Resilience Officer at Nationwide, said:

Uplifting the cyber resilience of the UK economy is a collective endeavour that no one organisation or sector can achieve alone. As a modern mutual Nationwide Building Society are proud to play our part and be a signatory of the Cyber Resilience Pledge.

Simon King, CEO of Autotech Group, said:

As a company that works with major automotive organisations, as well as organisations operating across the wider mobility sector, we understand that trust is built on how well we protect the information, systems and people our customers rely on every day. That’s why we’ve focused on embedding security and governance into the way we operate as a business. As an early signatory of the UK’s Cyber Resilience Pledge, we are reinforcing our commitment to continual improvement and ensuring cyber resilience remains a board-level responsibility as both our business and the automotive sector become increasingly connected.

Julian David, CEO of techUK, said:

We have long held the view that cyber resilience is a critical business and organisational enabler. It underpins our growth, our economic security, and the safety and security of our people. With the average cost of significant cyber-attacks to the UK economy recently estimated to be £14.7billion annually  – the equivalent of 0.5% of our GDP – it’s clear that cyber security and resilience must be recognised as a leadership responsibility and should no longer be viewed as an IT issue alone. We are, therefore, proud signatories of the Government’s Cyber Resilience Pledge, committing to the practical actions set out for our own organisation as well as continuing to champion, more widely, accountability for cyber risk at the board level.

Experts at the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) are urging organisations of all kinds to urgently focus on their cyber security as the threats evolve at pace. The steps organisations should take to protect themselves, their supply chains and their customers against AI-driven cyber threats are the same fundamental cyber hygiene measures recommended to combat traditional attacks, though businesses are being urged to act with increased urgency given damaging cyber incidents over the past year. 

The NCSC says the 3 actions enshrined in the Pledge are practical steps that will help improve an organisation’s resilience and, if adopted at scale, strengthen resilience across the wider economy. 

Resilient organisations are better able to recover from incidents, protect their customers and demonstrate to investors, partners and suppliers that they are taking cyber risk seriously. 

The press release issued by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology on 27 June 2026.

A dozen cutting-edge projects will benefit thousands of patients battling obesity across the UK.

• A dozen cutting-edge projects will see thousands of patients across the UK benefitting from new approaches to tackling obesity.    
• £85 million grant funding from government and pharmaceutical company Lilly for new approaches such as using AI tools to improve patient care.    
• Round-the-clock virtual advice and AI-assisted triage among plans to bring care to underserved communities.

Patients in regions across the UK will be given new and easier ways to access obesity care through 12 new projects, from apps and round-the clock advice on WhatsApp to AI-powered triage.  

Through the Obesity Pathway Innovation Programme (OPIP), projects are set to receive grant funding of up to £50 million from government and up to £35 million from pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly and Company (Lilly).  

They will reshape how obesity is treated and ease long-term pressure on frontline health services by using technology to give people new ways to access support. 

Putting advice and support at a patient’s fingertips marks a step change in how we can support people living with obesity. 

Among the projects, patients in Norfolk, Suffolk, and north east Essex will get the care they need more quickly through AI-assisted triage. This will mean people worried about their weight being able to fill in a short online health check from home – matching them to the right NHS support, whether that’s advice from a dietitian, or specialist clinical care.  

In Kent, up to 3,300 families – from pregnancy through to a child’s early years – will get round-the-clock AI powered advice on healthy eating, activity, sleep and stress, straight to their phone via WhatsApp. That means a parent worried about feeding their toddler in the middle of the night, or unsure where to turn for help, can get the right answer instantly – typing their questions into WhatsApp for an immediate response. This will mean people can get the advice they need without a GP or clinic appointment.  

In Leicester and Northamptonshire, patients will receive weight management support through an initial 6 new neighbourhood hubs, set up in local facilities like community pharmacies or gyms. Children and adults can be referred online, or through their GP, school, or council, standing to benefit from healthy living and lifestyle advice, adolescent specific apps, and, where clinically appropriate, weight loss medication. Whether someone asks for support in person or online, they’ll be supported to find the right care, with extra focus on deprived, Black, South Asian and rural communities who currently miss out most. 

People in Northern Ireland will be able to refer themselves and work with an NHS clinician to set personal goals, avoiding the wait for a GP appointment. While people in Wales will, for the first time, have one clear route into NHS weight management support – in English or Welsh – wherever they live. 

Science Secretary Liz Kendall said:   

Almost 1 in 3 adults in this country are living with obesity – that’s millions of people who deserve real support. 

These pioneering projects will meet people where they are – whether that is through a pharmacy round the corner, an app on their phone, or support in their own language. For a parent trying to give their child the best start, or someone who has struggled to access help for years, that can make all the difference.  

The evidence these projects generate will help remove the barriers that have stopped too many people getting they help they need, shaping better health services in the future for every one of us.

Secretary of State for Health and Social Care James Murray said:   

Obesity is an epidemic and we need bold action to end it now. These innovative projects will bring together the NHS, local partners and industry to test new ways of delivering obesity care that uses the latest technology and is closer to people’s homes.  

What we learn from these projects has the potential to help people across the country live healthier lives, underlining this government’s commitment to deliver the 10-Year Health Plan and shift healthcare from treatment to prevention and reduce long-term pressure on vital NHS services.

Obesity is one of the UK’s most pressing health challenges, with almost one third of adults in England, Scotland, and Northern Ireland, and one in four in Wales living with the condition*. 

Estimates suggest it costs UK society up to £107 billion per year**, including a bill of more than £9 billion per year for the NHS. Limited access to effective weight loss interventions, like specialist advice, guided physical activity or medicines, remains a key barrier for patients who need support.  

OPIP will aim to transform outcomes for a wide range patients, including people in deprived rural and coastal communities who often have to travel long distances for in-person care, minority ethnic communities, and for people with disabilities and early years families.   

Focusing on groups who face most difficulty accessing care will maximise the impact of support through these projects, helping to make the biggest possible difference to people’s lives.  

These projects will inform the future of obesity care and how the lessons learned from them can be rolled out across the country.  

Today’s announcement builds on a wider package of government action to end the UK’s obesity pandemic, with action to restrict junk food advertising on TV before 9pm and at all times online – expected to remove up to 7.2 billion calories a year from children’s diets – and giving local authorities new powers to stop fast food shops opening near schools. 

The government has also consulted on banning the sale of high-caffeine energy drinks to under-16s to protect children’s physical and mental health, and is revising the School Food Standards to ensure every child has access to nutritious meals. 

Other measures to end the UK’s obesity pandemic include free school meals being extended to every child in a household receiving Universal Credit, alongside the rollout of free breakfast clubs so children start the day ready to learn. 

To support families on the lowest incomes, the value of Healthy Start payments has been uplifted by 10%, helping parents afford healthy food for their children. And from January 2028, the Soft Drinks Industry Levy will be expanded to cover pre-packed milk-based and milk-substitute drinks – building on a policy that has already cut the average sugar content of soft drinks in scope by 47% between 2015 and 2024. 

Large food businesses will also be required to report against standardised metrics on healthier food sales by the end of this Parliament – bringing full transparency and accountability to the food and drink the country buys. 

Professor Naveed Sattar, Chair of the Obesity Healthcare Goals said: 

It is very encouraging to see investment in these projects, given the urgent need for the NHS to develop better ways of supporting the many people affected by obesity and its complications.

Each project brings distinct strengths and will explore innovative approaches to care, with the most successful strategies likely to shape future obesity services across the UK.

Prof Ben Bridgewater, Executive Chair, the Health Innovation Network said:  

Health innovation is a collective leadership opportunity. This is an example of partners, industry, national and devolved governments and the NHS aligning priorities to deliver innovation locally, closer to patients, that will have a national impact, improving health and wealth across the country. 

The Health Innovation Network will play a crucial role in leading the Communities of Practice to ensure learnings from the frontline are shared and fed back into the system, avoiding duplication and driving the implementation of the Obesity Pathway Innovation Programme.

Chris Stokes, President and General Manager, Lilly UK and Northern Europe, said:   

Obesity is a significant health challenge for the UK.

We are proud to work with the government to support NHS partners in projects which have the potential to modernise obesity services and make a genuine difference in the lives of people living with obesity.

Claire Spooner, Director of the Innovation Service at Innovate UK, said:   

Innovate UK is delivering the Obesity Pathway Innovation Programme that will set-up and test new models of care to enable patients living with obesity to access clinically appropriate weight management services.  

The programme aims to improve the health of patients living with obesity and is aligned with the NHS ambition to prevent rather than treat illness.

The projects are being led by an NHS Integrated Care Board or a Devolved Nation NHS Board, and many working with partners such as the British Heart Foundation, or Obesity UK.    

Eligible patients will be able to access support through the projects imminently, which will run until March 2029.

The press release issued by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology on 23 June 2026.

Oxford and UCL to host new government-backed labs developing the next generation of AI that more businesses and services can readily use.

• Oxford and UCL to host new government-backed labs developing the next generation of AI that more businesses and services can readily use
• AI is already helping to diagnose cancer sooner and make our energy systems more resilient – these 2 new labs will ensure British people continue to benefit as the technology advances
• Backed with up to £60 million and access to large-scale computing power, the labs will build the foundations for the next wave of AI breakthroughs to be made in Britain

Two new research labs led by Oxford and University College London will share up to £60 million in government funding to develop new breakthroughs in AI on British shores, it has been announced today (Tuesday 23 June).

AI has quickly gone from being the staple of science fiction to something people use everyday – at work, in schools and public services. That includes in hospitals where it is screening patients for cancer, in the energy sector designing better batteries, and accelerating drug discovery in medicine.

But we are still only scratching the surface of what AI could potentially deliver for the economy, public services, and society. The UK is uniquely placed to spearhead the fundamental work that could make AI cheaper to run, more dependable, and easier for businesses, researchers and public services across the UK to adopt and use. 

Supported by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), the labs will open up entirely new avenues for what AI can do – from building open-source technologies that run on widely available hardware, which could include ordinary consumer computers, to rethinking how AI systems learn without requiring vast centralised computing power.

By focusing on changes to the fundamentals of AI that could lower costs and improve performance, the work will help open AI to far more organisations – supporting new breakthroughs, boosting productivity and accelerating innovation across the UK. 

With some of the world’s leading universities at the heart, the UK is uniquely placed to lead this work – helping to shore up our economic and national security.

AI Minister Kanishka Narayan said:

We are only just beginning to unlock AI’s huge potential to grow our economy and improve our public services. With our world-leading universities and deep pool of AI expertise, Britain can set the agenda for what comes next.

These new labs will lead the world in the fundamental work that is set to make AI cheaper, more practical and easier to adopt so more businesses and public services across the UK can benefit.

And by building this capability here at home, backed by our world leading universities, we’re strengthening our own expertise, reducing reliance on others and securing Britain’s place at the forefront of this technology – fittingly announced on what would have been Alan Turing’s 114th birthday.

UCL Lead Professor David Barber said:

We’re very excited that UCL will be the leading the new SOFAIR Lab. While current AI systems are impressive, many still suffer from basic issues such as inaccurate responses to questions. These systems often use similar underlying architectures, so SOFAIR will bring together the broader sciences and fresh ideas to create a new generation of open-source models. This will reduce dependency on the small number of model providers, boosting UK sovereignty and its position as a global player in AI.

Oxford University Associate Professor Jakob Foerster said:

The UK cannot win the global AI race simply by trying to outspend the largest technology companies on data and compute. BOLD is about a different route: discovering fundamentally new ways to build AI that are more efficient, more open and better aligned with human needs. 

By focusing on new paradigms for learning, rather than only scaling existing methods, we aim to help secure the UK’s sovereign capability in AI and ensure that academic research can shape the future of the field.

Professor Charlotte Deane, Senior Responsible Owner for the UKRI AI Programme and Executive Chair of EPSRC, said:

The UK is already one of the world’s leading nations in AI research.

We are one of the few countries in the world with all the right ingredients, from a deep pool of top AI experts to world-class universities.

These labs will put that advantage to work, backing the bold, high-reward ideas that can shape the future of AI. We look forward to working with the labs to maximise the benefits for the UK.

The Science of Fundamental AI Research (SOFAIR) Lab will develop new open-source AI technologies that can run on widely available hardware. 

Led by Professor David Barber at UCL alongside the universities of Cambridge, Oxford and Edinburgh, it will bring together researchers from across computer science, mathematics, statistics and neuroscience to explore new ways to design AI systems. This will make advanced AI tools cheaper and more accessible

The British Open-ended Learning and Discovery (BOLD) Lab will rethink how AI learns from the world around us.

Led by Professor Jakob Foerster at the University of Oxford, with UCL and Imperial College London, the lab will develop systems that can learn more efficiently, adapt to new situations and navigate physical spaces. By focusing on practical, human centred AI, the lab will help turn research into tools that can be used in workplaces, infrastructure and public services – supporting wider adoption across the economy. 

Government is making up to £60 million available through UKRI’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) to support these labs over the next 6 years, alongside access to large scale computing power worth tens of millions of pounds – essentially the processing power to run and train AI models. 

Today’s announcement goes further than first planned, doubling the number of labs from one to two and increasing total investment from £40 million to up to £60 million – reflecting the scale of opportunity for the UK. 

Both labs will invest in top AI researchers at every career stage, with £2 million per lab earmarked for hiring at least 10 doctoral students – helping to build and grow the UK’s talent. The labs will also work closely with existing leaders in British AI research like the Alan Turing Institute and UKRI’s AI research hubs.

The funding forms part of the UKRI AI Strategy – a £1.6 billion plan to strengthen the UK’s leadership in AI over the next 4 years. With world-class universities, leading researchers and a growing AI sector, the UK is well placed not just to develop AI, but to ensure more organisations can use it -strengthening the country’s capability, resilience and long-term growth.

The press release issued by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology on 19 June 2026.

SilentGlass is a plug-and-play cyber security device developed by NCSC and commercialised with support from GOTT, now licensed to a UK firm for global use.

Background 

The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), a part of The Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), is the UK’s National Technical Authority on cyber security. It works round the clock to combat cyber threats, support victims of cyber incidents, empowers organisations to protect the online services and digital technologies that underpin the UK economy and public services. 

As modern computer monitors become increasingly ’smart‘, digital video connections can be exploited to compromise laptops and other connected devices. This risk is particularly acute in environments where devices of differing trust levels connect to shared monitors, including secure government facilities, hybrid office working, and home working set‑ups. 

SilentGlass was developed within the NCSC to address this challenge, providing a simple and effective way to prevent video connections being used as a route for cyber-attack. 

Knowledge Asset solution 

SilentGlass is a small, ’plug-and-play’ hardware device that sits between a laptop and a monitor, preventing the physical connection from being used as a route to compromise either device. By removing this attack pathway, it helps organisations improve cyber security while supporting safer flexible and hot‑desking arrangements. 

The technology was originally developed for internal government use, but has since demonstrated clear potential for wider adoption across the public sector, critical national infrastructure and the private sector. 

To bring the technology to market while maintaining strong governance and security considerations, the NCSC pursued a licensing‑based commercialisation route. 

Who will this help? 

SilentGlass supports organisations that need high‑assurance protections for connected devices, including: 

• government departments and public sector bodies 
• organisations operating critical national infrastructure 
• businesses with high cyber security requirements 
• employers enabling flexible and hybrid working 

For the public sector, the case demonstrates how a government‑developed cyber security capability can be commercialised, supporting wider adoption while protecting intellectual property and ensuring greater public benefit. 

GOTT’s role 

The Government Office for Technology Transfer (GOTT) supported the NCSC to shape the commercialisation of SilentGlass by: 

• advising on appropriate intellectual property licensing strategies  
• providing funding and mentoring for a local Knowledge Asset manager to build commercialisation capability 
• facilitating access to the Tech Transfer ecosystem, including connections to experts in public sector investment and licence management 
• Championing and supporting the licensing approach across HM Government  

This support helped the NCSC navigate the commercialisation process, engage effectively with the market and secure a suitable licensing partner through a fair and competitive process. 

Outcome 

Following a competitive process, a global IP licence for SilentGlass has been agreed with a UK‑based company, Goldilock Labs. The device is now available globally. 

The licensed product will enable wider access to a high‑assurance cyber security solution originally developed for government use, supporting safer deployment of digital technologies and helping share the benefits of public sector innovation more widely across the UK and globally. 

By helping to launch a UK company onto the global market with this world-class innovation, we are breaking new ground, showing the impact that the NCSC can have, alongside industry partners, with an affordable and effective product now globally available. GOTT’s expertise and encouragement of UK HMG departments to seek greater value from their intellectual property (IP) was instrumental in our confidence to commercialise SilentGlass. We’ll continue working together off the back of this success to commercialise more of our unique IP to benefit our mission and the UK’s prosperity.

Ollie Whitehouse, NCSC Chief Technology Officer

The press release issued by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology on 16 June 2026.

A new national network to coordinate standards for the quantum technologies that will revolutionise everything from medicine to banking and transport.

• £10m network launched to shape the rules of the road for quantum – backing the UK’s global leadership.
• New National Quantum Standards Network will help turn British research into secure, reliable products people can trust and businesses can sell worldwide.
• Coordinated standards to accelerate breakthroughs in healthcare, transport and finance – unlocking jobs, investment and growth.

A new national network to coordinate standards for the quantum technologies that will revolutionise everything from medicine to banking and transport will strengthen the ability of British companies to grow at home and sell around the world.

Announced by Science Minister Lord Vallance today, the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) will establish the National Quantum Standards Network (QSN) to bring together common standards for game-changing Quantum technology. 

Supported by £10 million from DSIT, it will bring together government, industry, and academia to engage with UK companies – ensuring their products are developed to internationally recognised standards.

The QSN will oversee everything from the linewidths of the ultra-narrow lasers needed to control qubits inside a quantum computer, to the size, weight and energy-efficiency requirements that will ensure one quantum sensor’s reading can be trusted against another’s.

It will bring together government, industry, academia and standards bodies, including the British Standards Institution and UKRI’s National Quantum Computing Centre.

Standards already underpin services we rely on, like using our mobile phones abroad and sending data securely. Doing the same with Quantum will help speed up adoption of the technology, and could help with everyday tasks like supporting sensitive transactions for banks all over the world.

Science Minister Lord Vallance said:

Quantum could bring benefits to our society as significant as what we are seeing with AI, with the potential to deliver new medicines, better public services, and protect our finances.

The UK’s quantum sector is already a global leader. With the National Quantum Standards Network we will accelerate its growth, meaning more British jobs and investment into our economy  from all over the world.

As key decisions are taken in international quantum standards-setting bodies over the coming years, the UK will now lead the way globally with its own dedicated network. The QSN will give British companies a voice in standards over the long term in a sector which has the potential to add £212 billion to the UK economy and add 100,000 jobs.

The government’s £2 billion investment into quantum announced earlier this year – building on existing strengths of leading companies and world-class talent – is already keeping the UK at the forefront of quantum innovation. This includes £1.2 billion towards the procurement of large-scale quantum computers, so companies can have confidence bringing technologies from the lab to market.

Dr Peter Thompson, CBE, CEO at NPL said: 

We are delighted to be leading the establishment of the Quantum Standards Network which marks a major step in ensuring the UK can lead the global conversation on quantum. Standards are the backbone of responsible, scalable innovation.

By coordinating expertise across the UK quantum ecosystem, the network will accelerate technology adoption, boost UK competitiveness and support the safe and ethical development of quantum technologies.”   

The UK is a big quantum player. In a recent vote of confidence, Vescent – a leading manufacturer of quantum tech – recently chose NPL as the location for its first office outside the US.

By positioning itself at the heart of common standards for quantum, the UK will secure competitive advantage, attract investment, and ensure British innovation underpins the technologies of the future.

Notes to editors

• Hosted by NPL, the Quantum Standards Network unites key strategic partners including DSIT, BSI, UKRI National Quantum Computing Centre, National Cyber Security Centre, and UKQuantum. Together, they will coordinate the UK’s engagement in emerging international standards activity and foster collaboration with leading technical agencies internationally.

The press release issued by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology on 15 June 2026.

Social media platforms to be blocked from offering services to under-16s, marking a line in the sand and setting a new normal for future generations.

• UK will go further to protect kids with world-leading additional restrictions on harmful features online such as live streaming and strangers communicating with children 
• Government action shows clear choice to side with families over tech companies to put power back in parents’ hands and give kids the childhood they deserve 
• Decisive action – backed by 9 in 10 parents – expected to be brought to Parliament before Christmas, with protections expected to come into force in Spring 2027 

Children will be given back their childhoods thanks to government action to ban social media platforms from offering services to under-16s, with less time for scrolling and more time for play. 

The plans will set a new normal for future generations, kickstarting a cultural shift and driving forward the government’s fight to give every child the best start in life. 

The government plans to use the same model for a social media ban as Australia. This would capture user-to-user platforms, whose purpose is to enable social interaction and which allow users to post material, alongside algorithms. The ban will therefore include platforms like Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and X. We do not intend for messaging services like WhatsApp and Signal to be included in the social media ban.

In a move to protect children online and address the scale of the challenge, the government will also go further than a blanket ban on social media with world-leading blocks on harmful functions such as livestreaming and stranger communication with children for under-16s. These restrictions – which together with the ban go further than any other country – will apply to a wider range of online services, including on gaming sites. 

Restrictions on these functionalities will also be on by default for under 16- and 17-year-olds to prevent a cliff-edge at 16. The government will also be looking in more detail at overnight curfews and breaks in infinite scrolling for under-18-year-olds and will set out more detail in July. 

Prime Minister Keir Starmer said:  

Parents want to keep their kids safe and happy, but the online world has made that harder than ever. 

I’ve heard first hand from families crying out for change and we will do right by them.  

That’s why we’re going further than any country in the world by banning social media for under-16s and putting wider protections in place to give kids their childhood back. 

This is a line in the sand. Tech giants had their chance and failed, but we’re stepping in to protect children, back parents and set a new normal for future generations.

So-called AI ‘romantic companion’ chatbots – designed to simulate sexual relationships or roleplay with users – will have to enforce a minimum age of 18. Similar intimate functionalities will be restricted for under-18s on AI chatbots more widely. 

Taken together, these measures will mean a much more comprehensive model than just a blanket ban on social media — one that responds to how children experience harm online, rather than just where it happens. 

The changes will back parents grappling with the risks for children that come from the online world and help empower them by providing a clear decision on what is safe and age-appropriate for children. 

This is a decisive first step by the government which marks a clear choice to put children’s wellbeing first and give them a healthy life online. We stand ready to take further measures in the future.

Technology Secretary Liz Kendall said: 

Today we take a bold and significant step, towards creating a safer, healthier life online, for our children and future generations. 

Tech companies have had countless opportunities to keep children safe, yet they have failed to act. That is why we are a taking power away from the tech giants and putting it back in parents’ hands. 

My driving force has always been to give every child, from every background, the best possible start in life. That is what these regulations will deliver.

The government will also learn the lessons from Australia’s experience by introducing more highly effective age assurance (HEAA) measures to support compliance, making it far harder for children to bypass safeguards. 

Ofcom will conduct a rapid study on what is effective age assurance for verifying whether someone is over 16. The Secretary of State has also written to the new Chair of Ofcom to ask for an urgent review of Ofcom’s enforcement capabilities with a clear enforcement strategy to be published as soon as possible.

In her letter, the Secretary of State confirmed the government will ensure Ofcom has the funding it needs to carry out its new responsibilities – as well as continue its vital work to enforce the existing provisions of the Online Safety Act, including protecting women and girls online, tackling harmful content that puts vulnerable people at risk, and taking action against serious illegal activity such as child sexual abuse material and online fraud and scams.  

Today’s announcement follows one of the biggest national conversations held by this government, with more than 116,000 responses submitted by parents, children and experts across the country. The responses showed overwhelming public backing for tougher action. 9 in 10 parents said they would support a social media ban for children under 16.

The majority of young people also backed action, with two-thirds agreeing that children younger than 16 should not be allowed to use at least some social media platforms. 

On social media services, real-time content makes harmful material harder to moderate, and algorithmic feeds can intensify exposure to dangerous, distressing or overly engaging material.

Parents rightly expect government to take action as quickly as possible, which is why the government has already taken powers through the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act to act fast — using secondary legislation to introduce targeted protections without needing to wait to bring in a whole new Act. This means the first set of regulations could be in effect in Spring 2027. 

Today’s action builds on the government’s work to date to go further and faster to protect children online and fight for their wellbeing. Last week, the Prime Minister challenged tech companies so that Britain will be the first country in the world to make it impossible for children to take, share or view nude images – with a 3-month deadline to make meaningful progress. 

This watershed moment will come alongside the government’s drive to remove barriers to opportunity and set every child up for happy, fulfilling lives. Yesterday, the government set out further steps to make sure children in every part of the country get greater access to enrichment opportunities in sport, creative activities, nature and the arts both in and out of school.

This builds on wider work to halve the participation gap and reclaim childhood for all young people, including through reforms to the curriculum so that every child gets the skills they need to get on in life, and support throughout their school years to explore and develop their talents, regardless of their background or where they live.

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

The Government Cyber Action Plan aims to boost cyber resilience across the UK public sector by using emerging technologies to manage risk. The Government Cyber Coordination Centre (GC3) – a partnership between the NCSC and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology – is leading this work, exploring how frontier AI can be applied safely to cyber defence across government.

From frontier models to front-line impact 

We know AI is disrupting the cyber threat landscape. Recently released frontier AI systems such as Claude Mythos and GPT-5.5 brought a step-change in cyber capabilities, and the UK AI Security Institute (AISI)’s evaluations show these models getting better at cyber tasks very quickly.  

However, evaluation in synthetic environments gives a limited understanding of real-world use. A high score on a benchmark does not necessarily translate into finding and fixing real vulnerabilities.

What we did 

The Government Cyber Coordination Centre led a weekly, in-person series of hackathons which used frontier AI to scan public code repositories across government. Working closely with specialists from the AISI and NCSC, our goal was to find and mitigate previously unidentified vulnerabilities before they could be exploited. Rather than mandate a single approach, we gave teams model access and let them build their own tooling, noticing what worked each week and building on the best approaches. 

The UK Government encourages new source code to be open by default, with specific and justified exceptions. In practice, that creates a degree of shared visibility that attackers can also exploit. However, this openness also limits duplication and leads to cleaner, more easily maintained code. 

Code published in the open has also already passed extensive prepublication scrutiny, meaning it can be shared with frontier model providers with minimal additional review. This means that government departments can deploy new capabilities quickly and with confidence.

An adversarial chain that challenges itself. One team ran each public repo through a six-stage AI agent pipeline: triage, validator, auditor, tracer, judge, summary. Each stage reads and challenges the last. In one case, the agent downgraded a finding once it established that a backup mechanism was in place. The pipeline was agentic, but the escalation was manual. This means a member of the team checked every line, re-verified exposure, and handled false positives.

Deterministic scanners feeding a model. Another team ran traditional scanning tools first (including Gitleaks, Trivy, Semgrep and Hadolint) to generate a ranked findings document. Three model stages were then layered on top: a discovery stage that treated the scanner output as leads and read the source against OWASP and CWE frameworks, a chain-investigation stage that composed individual findings into attack paths via per-chain sub-agents, and a triage stage that confirmed the finding viability.

Codifying a multi-service audit into reusable skills. Another department developed five domain-specific Claude Skills. The Skills distil an organisation wide audit across hundreds of services into something repeatable. Skills enabled a reusable, scoped, and consistent approach across every repository and operator.

What we found 

Participants identified 407 findings in total, including critical weaknesses exposing services to authentication bypass, data exposure and remote code execution. Some were already understood and mitigated by compensating controls while others were previously unknown. All critical weaknesses have been remediated, and no evidence of exploitation was identified for any finding. 

AI models traced vulnerabilities across service boundaries, which traditional scanners can’t do, and linked business logic with technical detail. Departments prioritised validation and remediation through existing frameworks, patching critical and high-risk issues assessed as exploitable. 

It cost us £13,000 in tokens to find these weaknesses, working across nine government organisations for the month.

Identifying Critical vulnerabilities: One notable finding affected legacy GitHub Actions in a repository supporting a key government digital service. The issue allowed an external user to trigger a workflow chain by posting a specially structured comment on an open pull request. This bypassed the usual protections for pull requests from unknown contributors because the workflow was triggered by a comment, not by the pull request itself. 

The impact was arbitrary remote code execution on the GitHub Actions runner. The workflow took content from the comment, passed it into deployment parameters, and used it in an environment substitution step that executed during the workflow. By placing executable content in the comment field, an external user could cause their input to run on the GitHub runner. 

This created a route for malicious actors to potentially extract secrets and tokens available to the workflow, including the GitHub token used by the automation. With that level of access, the issue could support wider repository compromise, including manipulating pull requests, approving workflow activity, altering trusted contributor status, and exploit further secrets available to the automation environment.

What we learnt 

Across teams, the common thread was structure. Models were used as components, using Skills, running in parallel across repositories, and a human expert kept in the loop on anything that mattered. We learnt that: 

• Architecture matters the most. The strongest results came from using frontier models as tightly scoped components inside a structured pipeline. Breaking traditional vulnerability management workflows into discrete, task-specific harnesses let teams scale while controlling false positives and hallucination. 
• The model matters less than how it’s used. AISI’s research, borne out here, shows that with the right architecture and task design many near-frontier and frontier models perform comparably at scanning code. The best findings still lean heavily on human expertise in breaking the problem down and identifying wider context. 
• Triage is essential. Agents generate candidate findings far faster than humans can validate them. Poorly scoped runs burn tokens on low-value targets; weak review dumps the load onto stretched security teams. Careful upfront scoping and structured internal filtering of low-confidence findings kept human review focused. As in traditional vulnerability management, it’s not how many issues are found, but whether triage points limited resource where it matters. 
• Finding isn’t the same as fixing. Findings still had to enter the patch pipeline for remediation. AI shows promise here too, but today prioritisation, review and patch-generation all must integrate without overwhelming human-centred processes.

What next 

GC3 will kick off a second phase of this pilot, with more departments, additional models, and an extension from public code to closed-source estates. Identifying vulnerabilities early on, raising the consistency of defensive practice, and helping departments share on proven techniques is how we put the Government Cyber Action Plan into practice.  

AISI and NCSC’s involvement will also deepen as we continue to evaluate AI as a tool for cyber defence in applied settings, closing the gap between a theoretical benchmark and a real reduction in risk. 

This pilot was a test of how government can adopt new capabilities responsibly, learn quickly, and share what works.

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

More than £6 billion of new investment and around 8,000 new jobs have been announced this week, as companies from around the world choose to build, hire and scale here.

More than £6 billion of new investment and around 8,000 new jobs have been announced this week, as companies from around the world choose to build, hire and scale here – reinforcing Britain’s position as a global hub for AI.  

From AMD’s £2 billion commitment for next generation AI compute, to Nebius investing £1.7 billion in new infrastructure, to homegrown companies like Oxford Quantum Circuits securing record funding – this is Britain’s AI leadership turning into real jobs, investment and opportunities across the country. 

These deals span the full breadth of the AI economy – from chips and cloud infrastructure to autonomous vehicles and open-source development – showing the UK isn’t just keeping pace in the global AI race but helping to shape its direction.  

The momentum has been matched by government action throughout the week to strengthen the UK’s tech sector – backing the skills, infrastructure and innovation needed to unlock growth. That includes new support for young people to seize the opportunities of AI, the first-ever AI Adoption Summit, a landmark £1.1 billion AI Hardware Plan, plus new backing for open-source AI builders, and a data centre design challenge – so Britain builds with taste.  

Technology Secretary Liz Kendall said: 

Britain is seizing the opportunities of tech and AI to create jobs, improve lives and grow businesses.

Companies from across the globe are choosing to invest here and hire here, bringing billions of pounds and thousands of new jobs with them.

And this Government is backing them with our £1.1billion hardware plan and our investment in skills and training.

We are rebuilding Britain for the modern age and creating a future that works for all.

A range of major investments have been announced, totalling over £6 billion of investment and around 8,000 new jobs – from global leaders and frontier companies choosing to grow here. This includes:

• AMD commits up to £2 billion of investment over five years to Accelerate AI Innovation and Research in the United Kingdom.  
• Nebius, the AI cloud company, announced it is investing approximately £1.7 billion to build out capacity in the UK with three new deployments of advanced NVIDIA compute, as the company continues to expand its commercial and AI R&D hub in London. 
• Amazon opened a new fulfilment centre in Northampton and announced plans for a second major site in Kettering, committing more than £1 billion and up to 4,000 jobs in a single county as part of its planned £40 billion UK investment. 
• British unicorn Ark has announced an investment of £807m in the expansion of its Longcross Park campus. The expansion supports the deployment of leading AI cloud provider Nebius, which is also increasing its footprint in the UK as well as an additional data centre facility with 36MW of future capacity. 
• Eros Innovation is investing £265m and establishing a sovereign British Cultural AI capability, supporting 3,000+ jobs across 15 productions over five-years (2 films shooting in the UK in 2026), licensing its $1.7bn cultural dataset to its UK operation and launching an AI Studio to develop Large Cultural Models trained on British creative heritage and governed by British law. 
• Quantum computing scale-up Oxford Quantum Circuits (OQC) securing a £260 million investment – the largest quantum funding round in the UK, backed by the British Business Bank.  
• Silicon Valley investors Playground Global are launching a new fund backed by up to £150 million from the British Business Bank – the largest fund investment the bank has ever made – to invest in UK-based hardware companies and help them scale.  
• Arlequin AI investing up to £45 million in the UK over the next 5 years with capital deployed across local hiring, UK R&D, and sovereign deployment capability for government and critical national infrastructure clients. 
• Midlands Mindforge has now entered its active investing stage, thanks to the support of the Mayors of the East and West Midlands, UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), the Rigby Group and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) via the Invest in UK University R&D Midlands Campaign. This will help to unlock an initial £30m of capital into the region making its first round of investments into spinout companies. 
• Cosine announced the formation of a coalition of major UK institutions including, BAE Systems, BT, Lloyds Banking Group, NatWest, PwC and Leonardo UK, to co-design Lumen Sovereign, Britain’s first fully sovereign frontier AI model. Backed by the Government’s Sovereign AI Fund, Lumen Sovereign will be trained entirely on UK soil using Isambard-AI. 
• AI coding startup Cursor announced plans to open its European headquarters in London. 
• Fynd, the AI-native unified commerce platform serving brands and retailers across India, the Middle East, Africa and Southeast Asia, has opened its first UK office in London. This investment is projected to create 70 jobs across London, Manchester and the wider UK by 2028. 
• General Intuition — the frontier research lab dedicated to foundation models for spatial and temporal reasoning — has opened a UK office in London King’s Cross. The lab will invest some of its recent $133M seed round into expanding its London-based research team, drawing on the UK’s strong talent base. 
• Legora, the AI platform for legal professionals, is expanding its European footprint with a dedicated engineering hub in London in a major vote of confidence in the UK’s AI capabilities.  
• Multiverse announced the opening of a new technology hub in Edinburgh and plans to create 200 jobs in the next year across the new office and its London headquarters. 
• German AI unicorn n8n will expand its investment into the UK by delivering up to 200 high-skilled jobs over the next three years, a strong endorsement of the UK’s AI talent ecosystem. 
• PhysicsX secured a $300 million Series C investment, taking its valuation to approximately $2.4 billion. The funding will accelerate PhysicsX’s global expansion, platform development, and frontier physics AI research. 
• Reflection, the US-based open-source AI lab founded by former Google DeepMind researchers Misha Laskin and Ioannis Antonoglou, is expanding its UK footprint with plans to hire more than 100 highly skilled employees within the next 12 months, growing to over 1,000 roles within three years. 
• US tech company Replit will be opening up an office in London this year.

The press release issued by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology on 10 June 2026.

UK Space Minister unveils more than £19 million at London Tech Week to support British companies developing next-generation space technologies.

• Cardiff-based Space Forge will receive £10 million to develop its reusable fold-out heat shield, Pridwen, making it simpler and cheaper to return materials manufactured in space. 
• A further £9.25 million will support more early-stage UK space companies, helping them grow and bring in private investment. 
• The package includes new backing for companies developing technologies that strengthen space infrastructure, improve navigation and help track satellites and debris in orbit 

Britain’s space ambitions received a major boost today (10 June), with Space Minister Liz Lloyd announcing more than £19 million for cutting-edge technologies that could transform manufacturing in orbit and help keep space safe. 

Speaking at London Tech Week, Minister Lloyd announced a package of more than £19 million to back British space innovation. The package will support companies developing technologies that could change how materials are made in space, make it easier to bring them back to Earth, and help keep the space environment safe and sustainable. 

Welsh company Space Forge wins £10m backing for reusable heat shield 

Cardiff-based Space Forge is pioneering in-space manufacturing, developing semiconductors in microgravity where materials can be made with fewer defects and greater uniformity – potentially improving performance in technologies such as telecoms, computing, defence and clean energy. 

The company will receive £10 million, funded through an increase to the UK Space Agency’s investment in the European Space Agency’s General Support Technology Programme (GSTP), which will support a mission to design, build, launch and return ‘Pridwen’, a new deployable heat shield system designed to protect spacecraft returning to Earth. 

Traditional heat shields are usually fixed, rigid structures or tiles attached to a spacecraft, which can add weight, take up space and be difficult to reuse. Pridwen is designed to deploy during re-entry, creating a larger protective surface that helps shield the spacecraft from extreme heat and pressure while making the system lighter, easier to recover and more practical to use again. 

The mission will help bring Pridwen to full commercial readiness, enabling frequent and reliable return of payloads from space which is critical to the growth of the in-space manufacturing industry. 

Space Minister Liz Lloyd said: 

Today’s government-funded investment in Space Forge shows our commitment to keeping Britain at the forefront of the fast-growing space sector. Space Forge is developing technology that could revolutionise in-space manufacturing. 

Our wider investment is also helping more British space businesses grow, bring in private backing and create high-skilled jobs across the country. That is how we build a stronger space sector and keep the UK one of the best places in the world to start and scale a space business.

Joshua Western, CEO & Co-founder, Space Forge, said:  

We’re thrilled to be awarded the GSTP funding to help bring Pridwen to commercial readiness. This proprietary technology is key to enabling the safe return of our materials to Earth, which in turn unlocks the future of in-space manufacturing.  

With our recent ForgeStar-1 mission we proved we can create the right manufacturing environment for next-generation semiconductor materials in space, with this newly funded mission we can prove our ability to deliver products to market.

£9.25m boost for early-stage UK space companies 

Minister Lloyd also announced a further £9.25 million has been invested into the Space Portfolio of the UK Innovation and Science Seed (UKI2S) Fund, managed by Future Planet Capital, to help UK space businesses scale and grow, bringing the total Space Portfolio to £22 million. 

This additional investment into UKI2S will further help early-stage, high-potential UK space businesses get off the ground and attract more private investment, supporting jobs and growth across the country.   

The UKI2S Space Portfolio has already demonstrated success, having helped bring in more than £17 million from private investors, with every £1 of public money attracting over £5.90 in additional backing.

3 new deals have been agreed this year, helping UK space businesses bring in more than £10 million in extra private backing for work that will make space safer and improve technologies used in navigation and security: 

• Silicon Microgravity makes highly accurate sensors used in navigation, aerospace and defence. A £500,000 UKI2S Space investment helped the company secure a further £4.8 million from private investors. 
• Optera makes sensors that help track objects in space. Originally based in Australia, the company has now set up in the UK, with a £300,000 investment through the Space Portfolio helping it secure a further £2.4 million in additional investment. 
• Spaceflux tracks satellites and debris in orbit to help keep space safe. A follow-on £100,000 UKI2S Space investment, following an earlier £400,000 investment through the Space Portfolio in 2025, has helped the company attract £7.5 million in private investment. 

These deals build on the Fund’s broader track record, which includes a previous £500,000 investment in Messium, a company that uses satellite data and AI to help farmers use fertiliser more efficiently, reducing costs and environmental impact. That investment helped enable a total of £2.7 million in private investment. 

The press release issued by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology on 3 June 2026.

Sir Ian Cheshire has been announced as Chair of Ofcom, the UK’s independent regulator for communications.

• Technology Secretary confirms Sir Ian Cheshire, as new Chair of Ofcom 
• The former Channel 4 Chair will oversee regulator responsible for enforcing the UK’s Online Safety Act, driving growth across communications sectors, and protecting consumers  
• Sir Ian has committed to ensuring the regulator acts decisively to protect people from online harms as he steers Ofcom through crucial next chapter. 

Business leader Sir Ian Cheshire has been announced as Chair of Ofcom, the UK’s independent regulator for communications, following a pre-appointment hearing with the Science, Innovation and Technology Select Committee. 

His appointment signals a significant moment for Ofcom, which has evolved considerably since it was first established, with telecoms, broadcasting and online safety now all within its remit. 

In taking on the role, Sir Ian has committed to ensuring the regulator is guided by the experiences of those most exposed to online harms and translates that insight into strong, effective action. He has also committed to working constructively with Government on all aspects of Ofcom’s remit, including effective implementation of the Online Safety Act including government’s recent action to build on it, delivering Ofcom’s growth goals, and developing robust KPIs, while fully upholding Ofcom’s operational independence.  

Technology Secretary Liz Kendall said: 

Sir Ian brings exactly the kind of leadership experience that Ofcom needs as it enters this next critical chapter.  

The Online Safety Act must be enforced robustly and without compromise, and Ofcom has a central role in making the UK the safest place to be online. 

From protecting consumers and tackling online harms to driving growth across our communications sectors, the regulator has never had a more important role to play. I look forward to working with Sir Ian as he leads Ofcom into this next phase.

Sir Ian Cheshire said: 

I am honoured and delighted to take on the Chair of Ofcom at this vital time as it begins to tackle the new challenges of Online Safety while continuing to deliver its traditional oversight of telecoms and broadcasting . I am especially interested in the lived experience of our citizens and also seeing the data that allows us to measure the increase of our impact.

Sir Ian was most recently Chair of Channel 4 from 2022 to 2025, and previously Chief Executive of Kingfisher plc. He has since held senior non-executive and advisory roles across business, sustainability and public policy, including as Chair of Barclays UK, Landsecurities PLC and various charities. 

The Chair provides strategic leadership to Ofcom to ensure it can deliver its statutory responsibilities, including implementing and enforcing the Online Safety Act, protecting consumers and supporting growth and innovation across the UK’s communications sectors. 

He succeeds Lord Michael Grade, whose term as Chair concluded at the end of April 2026.