Recommendation 9

HM Government Accepted

We agree that it is essential to enhance our cyber and digital skills, and that this must be achieved through a more flexible workforce formed of regular and reserve military, civil service and industry. Foundations have already been set through initiatives such as: • The success of Cyber Unified Career Management which offers a specialist ‘cyber only’ career pathway (which was launched under this government) and a skills-based approach to pay. This includes the recent addition of a pilot direct entry scheme. MOD will initiate a second tranche of this scheme in 2026. • Specialist Reserve organisations which give deep industry specialists in areas like information operations, digital, cyber, and artificial intelligence a route to bring their skills into Defence on a part-time basis. • The Digital Skills for Defence Programme, which has catalysed digital transformation, operational readiness, and productivity across the whole force. • The Digital & Cyber Bursary Programme, in collaboration with the National Cyber Force and Lancashire Skills and Employment Hub, which offers practical cyber training, mentoring and financial support to students aged 16–18. • The Digital Skills Allowance which rewards civil servants who possess specific critical digital, data and cyber skills. By implementing the recommendations within the SDR, Defence will quickly cohere and build on these foundations. While time is required to generate a coherent plan and timetable for SDR implementation, the following opportunities are clear: • The establishment of the Cyber and Specialist Operations Command, including the Defensive Cyber and Electromagnetic Force, will provide coherence and momentum for cyber workforce growth. • Alongside this, the Digital Warfighter group will exemplify best practice for recruitment, retention and offer career models which allows the MOD to rapidly mobilise the best of regular military, reserve, civil service, and industry talent against the threats the UK faces in the grey zone. • The SDR supports the MOD’s continuous delivery against the intent of the Haythornthwaite Review. This includes creating a more flexible and agile workforce that can adapt to the needs of Defence now and in the future, as well as enhancing recruitment and retention. The launch of the ‘ZigZag Careers’ pilot, creating new lateral entry pathways to get key skills from industry into the organisation more quickly, is a first step towards this goal. • Strong partnerships with industry empowered by the forthcoming Defence Industrial Strategy will be critical to meeting the national challenge. Work on developing a two-way secondment programme with a focus on short-term, informal schemes that are mutually effective and can be delivered quickly is progressing. This is a whole of government effort, and the MOD will work more extensively with the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology to maximise the value of the ‘TechFirst’ programme. Additionally, we are actively engaged in cross-Government activity to deliver on the Prime Minister’s ambition that ‘one in ten civil servants will work in tech and digital roles within the next five years’ to realise the vision of a more agile, effective and active state.