UK cyber pledge draws only a handful of top firms despite ministerial appeal

Fewer than 15 of Britain’s 350 largest listed companies signed up to the government’s flagship voluntary cybersecurity scheme at its launch on Tuesday, eight months after ministers wrote personally to the chair and chief executive of every FTSE 350 firm urging them to do so.

Tuesday’s launch had been planned to follow the unveiling of Britain’s new National Cyber Action Plan on Monday before that was delayed due to Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s resignation.

In total, 70 founding signatories for the Cyber Resilience Pledge were named at the 10 Downing Street reception hosted by Technology Secretary Liz Kendall. Twenty of them are strategic government suppliers who had been invited to sign the pledge through a separate Government Cyber Charter governing the obligations of companies delivering critical services to the state. 

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