Purpose

Lancashire’s cyber
ecosystem has seen encouraging growth and increasing national
attention in recent years, with a strong foundation now in place
thanks to coordinated efforts by Lancashire County Council and
regional partners.
 
As the ecosystem matures
support needs to become more tailored, strategic, and
differentiated to maintain
momentum and meet the needs of a growing ecosystem. This support
should address delivery gaps, reduce duplication, and create clear
pathways for innovation, skills development, business scaling, and
investment.
 
Above all, it must ensure that
the ecosystem functions as a platform for long-term economic
resilience and national competitiveness.
 
From March to June 2025, LCC,
in collaboration with regional partners, hosted a series of
in-depth workshops with SMEs and key stakeholders within the cyber
security supply chain.
 
The objective to develop a
comprehensive understanding of how Lancashire County Council can
best position itself to capitalise on the transformative
opportunities presented by the National Cyber Force (NCF). As part
of this effort, our partners conducted a number of one-one
interviews and facilitated six roundtable sessions with over 100
attendees across the events these engagements surfaced a number of
valuable insights, with stakeholders consistently highlighting four
priority themes:
 
• Ecosystem
Investment
• Skills
Alignment
• Cyber Hygiene
• Procurement
Support
 
In addition to these core
themes, the roundtable discussions also revealed broader systemic
challenges. These include concerns around UK cyber sovereignty,
technological obsolescence, and the complexities of integrating
evolving compliance standards.
 
Overall vision: How do we
create a unified, accessible, and resilient Lancashire cyber
ecosystem that lowers barriers to entry, strengthens SME
collaboration, embeds cyber excellence, and ensures local
businesses are procurement-ready—so that the arrival of NCF
delivers long-term, inclusive economic growth across the county,
not just for primes but for all.
omic growth across the county, not just for
primes but for all.

Content

Vanessa Robinson-Hoy, Senior
Project Officer, on behalf of Simon Lawrence, Director of Growth and Regeneration, took
a decision to initiate a mini competition for cyber hygiene work
package (3 quote process).