The UK government will invest around £210 million to strengthen public services and improve digital resilience.

A new Government Cyber Action Plan will set out how the government aims to meet a growing range of online threats, while a Government Cyber Unit will seek to improve cyber defence to protect data and services.

The government said the measures will make online public services more secure and resilient, enabling people to use them with confidence.

As a result of the action plan, the government said it will gain clearer visibility of cyber and digital resilience risks, allowing faster responses to threats and incidents to minimise harm and speed recovery.

Additionally, the government said the action plan will enable stronger central action on the toughest cross‑department challenges and severe, complex risks that no single organisation can solve alone.

The plan will also boost resilience at scale, with targeted measures to close major gaps and protect critical services.

The action plan forms part of wider aims to digitise public services and make them accessible online to reduce paperwork and time spent in phone queues.

The government estimates that digitising public services could deliver around £45 billion in productivity gains by using technology more effectively.

“Cyber‑attacks can take vital public services offline in minutes – disrupting our digital services and our very way of life,” said Ian Murray, digital government minister. “This plan sets a new bar to bolster the defences of our public sector, putting cyber‑criminals on warning that we are going further and faster to protect the UK’s businesses and public services alike.”

The government has also launched a new Software Security Ambassador Scheme to help drive adoption of the Software Security Code of Practice, a voluntary framework designed to reduce software supply chain attacks and disruption.

It said software underpins the economy as a core component of technologies businesses rely on, yet weaknesses can cause severe disruption to supply chains.

Software and technology companies including Cisco, Santander and Sage will work with the government as ambassadors for the scheme and provide feedback on how the policy could be improved.

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