Cyber Essentials Willow Deadline: What You Need to Know Before 26 October 2026

If your organisation is currently enrolled to complete Cyber Essentials against the Willow standard, there is an important deadline you need to be aware of.

The final date to complete and pass your Cyber Essentials assessment against the Willow standard is 26 October 2026.

After this date, organisations that have not successfully passed will need to complete their assessment against the new Danzell standard, which will incur additional charges.

What does this mean for your organisation?

If you are currently working towards Cyber Essentials (Willow), it is important that you do not leave your assessment until the last minute.

Completing your assessment before the deadline does not necessarily mean that you will pass immediately. Depending on the information provided during your assessment, you may be asked to provide further information or make changes to your environment to address areas of non-compliance.

You may therefore need additional time for:

• Responding to requests for further information
• Remediating areas of non-compliance
• Making changes to your IT environment
• Resubmitting your assessment
• Allowing time for your assessor to review the changes

For this reason, we recommend completing your assessment well in advance of 26 October 2026.

What happens if I don't pass by 26 October?

If you have not successfully passed your Cyber Essentials assessment against the Willow standard by 26 October 2026, you will need to complete your assessment against the new Danzell standard instead.

This will result in additional charges, so allowing enough time to complete your Willow assessment and address any issues identified can help you avoid being caught by the transition deadline.

Already enrolled with Secarma?

If you are currently enrolled with Secarma to complete Cyber Essentials against the Willow standard, we recommend reviewing your assessment status and making sure you have enough time remaining to complete the process.

Don't leave your assessment until the last minute. If remediation or further information is required, you will need time to address these before the Willow deadline.

If you have any questions about your Cyber Essentials assessment or the transition from Willow to Danzell, please contact the Secarma team.