A lack of cyber security experts in Whitehall should “send a chill down the government’s spine”, according to a new report.
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said there was a “digital skills shortage” across departments, with just 4.5% of the civil service made up of tech professionals – compared to between 8% and 12% in the private sector.
And it said the lack of expertise – with some of it “self-inflicted” due to job cuts – could end up costing more in the long run as “opportunities to transform are foregone” and legacy systems fail.
Chair of the cross-party committee, Labour’s Dame Meg Hillier, said: “Digital must not be treated merely as a side-line, but must sit right at the heart of how government thinks about delivery.
“Without swift and substantial modernisation, opportunities to improve services for the public will continue to be lost.”
But the government insisted it had a “comprehensive programme in place” for recruitment and training.
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According to the PAC, there were fewer than half of the digital, data and technology professionals than were needed across Whitehall, including data architects and info security pros.
Pay constraints were one of the major factors in the recruitment failure, as when it came to those professionals who can demand a premium – especially cyber security experts – public sector budgets could not compete with private company job offers.
However, the committee said the skills shortage had also been “self-inflicted through counter-productive staffing cuts”, with the number of digital employees “rationed” across departments – especially apprenticeships.
The report said the government was “trying to improve pay for specialist roles, and considers that this is improving the situation”.
But the MPs said their aims would “not be achieved and the cost to government will be much more over the longer term if opportunities to transform are delayed or foregone and reliance on legacy systems is prolonged”.
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Just last year, Sky News was told a cyber attack against the Ministry of Defence had a ‘significant’ impact.
Of the tech services the government did provide, just 10 of the top 75 were described as “great” when it came to ease of use and efficient provision – but 45 “require significant improvement”, and there was a lack of a “single point of accountability” for each one.
And with infrastructure already aging, failing to tackle all the above would lead to increased costs in the future and risks to IT security.
“Our inquiry has found that Whitehall’s digital services, far from transforming at the pace required, are capable of only piecemeal and incremental change,” said Dame Meg.
“Departments’ future-proofing abilities are hobbled by staff shortages, and a lack of support, accountability and focus from the top. In particular, a lack of cyber-security experts should send a chill down the government’s spine.
“The government talks of its ambitions for digital transformation and efficiency, while actively cutting the very roles which could help achieve them.
“Our inquiry leaves us unconvinced that these aims will be achieved in the face of competing pressures and priorities.”
A Cabinet Office spokesperson said the government had a “comprehensive programme in place for recruiting and retaining technical skills and training civil servants in the vital digital skills needed to deliver modern public services”.
They added: “This includes increasing the size of the specialist digital, data and technology function across departments by over 10%, boosting access to digital training and improving specialist digital and data pay through reinvesting efficiency savings.
“We’re stepping up our cyber security skills through increasing training and investment in developing cyber security skills at all levels, including Cyber Boot Camps and uptake in computer science.”
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Norman Tebbit, the former Tory minister who served in Margaret Thatcher’s government, has died at the age of 94.
Lord Tebbit died “peacefully at home” late on Monday night, his son William confirmed.
One of Mrs Thatcher’s most loyal cabinet ministers, he was a leading political voice throughout the turbulent 1980s.
He held the posts of employment secretary, trade secretary, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Conservative party chairman before resigning as an MP in 1992 after his wife was left disabled by the Provisional IRA’s bombing of the Grand Hotel in Brighton.
He considered standing for the Conservative leadership after Mrs Thatcher’s resignation in 1990, but was committed to taking care of his wife.
Image: Margaret Thatcher and Norman Tebbit in 1987 after her election victory. Pic: PA
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch called him an “icon” in British politics and was “one of the leading exponents of the philosophy we now know as Thatcherism”.
“But to many of us it was the stoicism and courage he showed in the face of terrorism, which inspired us as he rebuilt his political career after suffering terrible injuries in the Brighton bomb, and cared selflessly for his wife Margaret, who was gravely disabled in the bombing,” she wrote on X.
“He never buckled under pressure and he never compromised. Our nation has lost one of its very best today and I speak for all the Conservative family and beyond in recognising Lord Tebbit’s enormous intellect and profound sense of duty to his country.
“May he rest in peace.”
Image: Lord Tebbit and his wife Margaret stand outside the Grand Hotel in Brighton. Pic: PA
Tory grandee David Davis told Sky News Lord Tebbit was a “great working class Tory, always ready to challenge establishment conventional wisdom for the bogus nonsense it often was”.
“He was one of Thatcher’s bravest and strongest lieutenants, and a great friend,” Sir David said.
“He had to deal with the agony that the IRA visited on him and his wife, and he did so with characteristic unflinching courage. He was a great man.”
Reform leader Nigel Farage said Lord Tebbit “gave me a lot of help in my early days as an MEP”.
He was “a great man. RIP,” he added.
Image: Lord Tebbit as employment secretary in 1983 with Mrs Thatcher. Pic: PA
Born to working-class parents in north London, he was made a life peer in 1992, where he sat until he retired in 2022.
Lord Tebbit was trade secretary when he was injured in the Provisional IRA’s bombing in Brighton during the Conservative Party conference in 1984.
Five people died in the attack and Lord Tebbit’s wife, Margaret, was left paralysed from the neck down. She died in 2020 at the age of 86.
Before entering politics, his first job, aged 16, was at the Financial Times where he had his first experience of trade unions and vowed to “break the power of the closed shop”.
He then trained as a pilot with the RAF – at one point narrowly escaping from the burning cockpit of a Meteor 8 jet – before becoming the MP for Epping in 1970 then for Chingford in 1974.
Image: Lord Tebbit during an EU debate in the House of Lords in 1997. Pic: PA
As a cabinet minister, he was responsible for legislation that weakened the powers of the trade unions and the closed shop, making him the political embodiment of the Thatcherite ideology that was in full swing.
His tough approach was put to the test when riots erupted in Brixton, south London, against the backdrop of high rates of unemployment and mistrust between the black community and the police.
He was frequently misquoted as having told the unemployed to “get on your bike”, and was often referred to as “Onyerbike” for some time afterwards.
What he actually said was he grew up in the ’30s with an unemployed father who did not riot, “he got on his bike and looked for work, and he kept looking till he found it”.