Why cyber resilience is now a boardroom priority for UK public services

The UK public sector has reached a cyber resilience inflection point. A new Prime Minister has taken office, and significant machinery-of-government changes have already been announced, including the scrapping of DSIT, the department that had become the center of government digital, technology and cyber policy. Its responsibilities are now being redistributed across other parts of Whitehall, creating a new policy and delivery landscape for public sector leaders to navigate.

For years, cyber security was treated as a specialist operational discipline that was essential but largely delegated to technical teams. That model is no longer sustainable. Pressure is now coming from three directions at once, as policy raises expectations for boards and senior leaders, organizational reform reshapes how services, systems and suppliers connect, and technology change, from cloud and hybrid work to AI, expands both opportunity and exposure.

Together, these forces mean cyber resilience can no longer sit below board level. …