UK Chancellor John Healey’s Autumn Budget 2026 announced around £700million overall investment to strengthen security, resilience and sovereign capability, including:
- £120million for the AI Security Institute (AISI), to strengthen the UK’s frontier AI evaluation and testing capability;
- £60m for the first phase of the National Cyber Shield initiative, to develop agentic cyber defence capabilities in partnership with the UK’s cyber industry;
- 70m for a new National Exposure and Real-Time Vulnerability (NERV) Centre at the NCSC to strengthen the UK’s ability to understand and reduce national cyber exposure, and deploy AI tools to identify cyber vulnerabilities across our critical infrastructure and the wider economy
- £40million to establish a National Agentic Security Unit to detect, investigate and respond to rogue agentic incidents, integrating monitoring and incident response functions with new operational capabilities
- £24m to expand the public sector AI defence programme, systematically hardening the public sector technology estate, with focus on local authorities, hospitals and schools
The Budget also included commitments to create a new AI Cyber Security Centre of Excellence in Manchester, to train the next generation of cyber and AI security expertise outside of London; a new ‘Back British’ approach for the defence sector; and a new Data Centre Covenant, establishing tests that strategic data centres are expected to meet, including the contribution they make to communities, and the UK’s economic interests (including providing secure and reliable access to the compute the UK needs and working with the relevant national technical authorities to enhance resilience against cyber and hybrid threats beyond baseline requirements.
Our UK Government Affairs Lead, Louise Horton analyses these announcements in more detail:
The Budget’s investment in AI security, cyber resilience and sovereign capability is a welcome recognition that technology, national security and economic growth go hand in hand. The £60m first phase of the National Cyber Shield is particularly exciting: an opportunity to harness agentic AI for proactive cyber defence in partnership with the UK’s cyber industry. Alongside the AI Security Institute and capabilities to address rogue agentic incidents, it puts security at the heart of the UK’s AI ambitions.
The £70m National Exposure and Real-Time Vulnerability Centre at the NCSC offers a practical route to identify weaknesses across critical infrastructure and the wider economy using AI, before incidents cause harm. The Chancellor’s commitment to ring-fence preventative spending at the next Spending Review should also be an opportunity to recognise cyber resilience as an investment in avoiding future disruption, rather than simply a response cost. As government accelerates AI-enabled public service transformation, investment in digital technology must be matched by cyber security and resilience. The planned consultation on insecure technology and liability for cyber breaches is also an opportunity to strengthen accountability.
Backing the Sovereign AI Unit and introducing a Data Centre Covenant are welcome steps, but sovereignty is about more than where technology is developed or data is stored. It requires domestic skills, expertise and assurance to understand, secure and maintain the systems on which the country depends. The new UK supplier definition and National Procurement Policy Statement should recognise businesses creating genuine capability and skilled jobs here, and give proven British cyber and AI-security companies meaningful opportunities to develop, test and scale trusted solutions.
NCC Group’s Chief Commercial Officer, Peter Vorley comments:
Sovereign capability isn't simply about where data or infrastructure resides. It's about having the skills, expertise and assurance capability to understand, test and secure the technologies we depend on.
The government's approach to UK suppliers and procurement could therefore be hugely important. Giving British cyber businesses opportunities to develop, prove and scale trusted solutions at home strengthens national resilience while helping create companies capable of competing internationally.
The planned AI Cyber Security Centre of Excellence in Manchester offers an important opportunity to turn regional strengths into national capability. As a Manchester-headquartered UK company with a global footprint, NCC Group has seen how strong regional ecosystems support resilience, high-value jobs and international growth. Sustained partnership between government, industry and academia will be essential to deliver those benefits.
As NCC Group’s Chief Executive Guy Ellis states:
I was particularly pleased to see Manchester chosen for the planned AI Cyber Security Centre of Excellence.
The North West has a fantastic technology ecosystem, a key part of our global resource base. We have great businesses, universities and talent here, and a real opportunity to turn that into more high-value jobs, greater national capability and stronger UK growth.
NCC Group is proud to call Manchester its birthplace, while competing and growing globally. We’re excited about the part we can play.
The commitment to fully fund the Defence Investment Plan and the new ‘Back British’ approach are also welcome. NCC Group’s experience providing assurance, testing and incident response across operational and mission-critical defence environments reinforces a clear lesson: modern defence requires secure digital infrastructure and trusted technology, with resilience built into suppliers and digital dependencies as well as frontline systems.
The forthcoming National Cyber Action Plan, alongside the Prime Minister’s Ten-Year Plan and next year’s Spending Review, will provide further opportunities to deliver greater national cyber resilience and secure growth.