Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Conclusion 26
24th Report - Government cyber resilience
Published 9 May 2025
Addressed to HM Treasury
Public Accounts Committee Government cyber resilience All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
We pressed DSIT and the Cabinet Office on why Government’s understanding of its legacy IT was so limited. They told us that the amount of legacy systems, and understanding of them, varied between departments. They said this was because information about legacy systems 48 Q 39 49 Qq 41–42 50 Q 43 51 C&AG’s Report, para 1.3 52 C&AG’s Report, para 3.5 53 Q 47; Letter from the Civil Service Chief Operation Officer and Cabinet Office Permanent Secretary relating to the oral evidence session held on 10 March 2025 on Government Cyber Resilience, 24 March 2025 54 Q 47 55 Q 49; Department for Science, Innovation & Technology, State of digital government review, January 2025 15 was not easy to access and was spread across arm’s–length and other public bodies. The Cabinet Office agreed there was an unacceptable gap in knowledge about government’s legacy IT.56 We asked why departments could not provide a list of the systems they have. We heard that data were in different formats across departments and poor asset management meant departments could not easily collate this data.57 DSIT told us that departments and the centre of government had limited resource to understand and fix legacy systems.58
From: Public Accounts Committee, 24th Report - Government cyber resilience (HC 643), 9 May 2025
Government response
Latest Treasury Minutes progress report to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Twenty-fourth Report of Session 2024-26
The government responded to the whole report on 4 June 2026.
Treasury minutes: Government response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Twenty-fourth report from Session 2024-26
Published 18 September 2025.
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government "agrees with the Committee's recommendation" in each of the six areas, setting target implementation dates between winter 2025 and autumn 2026.
- On the evolving threat, the government agrees, notes responsibility has moved to DSIT, and says DSIT will publish an implementation plan in winter 2025 and write to the Committee "in one year's time".
- On cyber skills, it "acknowledges the ongoing cyber skills gaps" and says that "Early next year" DSIT will set how many anticipated vacancies its central initiatives will address and how it will assist departments with the remaining gaps.
- On accountability and funding, DSIT will set expectations for departments to appoint a board member with cyber security and digital resilience expertise, and is "working with HMT on mechanisms for protecting budgets" for cyber and legacy remediation programmes.
- On arm's-length bodies and supply chains, it says departments remain "ultimately accountable for the risk" and that DSIT will "assure and enforce" that Accounting Officers are meeting this responsibility.