The UK public sector increased its spending on cyber security in 2024, maintaining the momentum for a trend that has prevailed since the beginning of the decade.
The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology has published the relevant figures, citing research company Tussell as the source, within its new UK Cyber Security Sectoral Analysis 2025 report.
They show the total value of public sector cyber security contracts at £931 million in 2024, up by 20% from £772 million in 2023. This follows a slight decline from £788 million in 2022, but reasserts the trend that has seen an increase from £266 million in 2020.
The number of contracts actually decreased marginally last year from 963 to 942, but is much higher than the 548 recorded in 2020.
The increases reflect the rising concerns over cyber attacks on public sector organisations, and a recent warning from the National Audit Office over the need to strengthen cyber resilience in central government.
Companies, jobs and revenue
Other key findings of the report include that there are over 2,000 firms currently providing cyber security products and services in the UK, with approximately 67,300 full time equivalent jobs in the sector, up by 11% from 60,700 the previous year.
Annual revenue in the sector had reached £13.2 billion an increase of around 12% from 2024 study.
In the report’s foreword, Minister for AI and Digital Government Feryal Clark says: “Cyber security is critical to our economic resilience and underpins the deployment of all emerging technology, but also the routine transactions, from banking to social media, that we all rely on.
“Our forthcoming Cyber Security and Resilience Bill will provide a robust framework for protecting our critical national infrastructure, driving up security standards, and ensuring that we are prepared against attacks.”
