Cyber & ISO · IASME licensed certification body
Failed Cyber Essentials Support
Failed Cyber Essentials or Cyber Essentials Plus? The scheme gives you two working days to fix simple issues and resubmit at no extra assessment charge, and speed decides whether you use them. We decode exactly what failed and why, fix it with your team and get you back in front of an assessor, from £950 + VAT.
Recovery at a glance
Definition
What is failed Cyber Essentials support?
Failed Cyber Essentials support is a rapid recovery service for organisations whose Cyber Essentials or Cyber Essentials Plus assessment did not pass: the failure report decoded, the real root causes found, the gaps fixed with your team and the resubmission prepared properly. It exists because most failures are recoverable quickly, and because the scheme itself rewards speed.
Intelance runs recovery in two tiers: the review and plan from £950 + VAT, which decodes the report and hands you a prioritised fix plan, and extended remediation from £2,400 + VAT, where our consultants close the gaps beside your team and prepare the resubmission. As an IASME licensed certification body we mark the same assessments, so nothing in your report is mysterious to us.
If the failure landed within the last two working days, call before reading further: simple issues fixed inside the window resubmit at no extra assessment charge. Our guide to common Cyber Essentials failures shows the patterns, and the wider practice is described under cyber assurance.
We explain what your report means
Every non-compliant answer translated into what the assessor needed.
We find the root causes
Why it failed, so the fix survives next year as well as this resubmission.
Fixes beside your team
Scope, MFA, patching and evidence closed with your people, fast.
We prepare your resubmission
Answers rewritten from evidence, inside the window where possible.
The causes
Six reasons Cyber Essentials assessments fail
Almost every failure report traces back to one of these. Each card shows how the recovery closes it, permanently rather than cosmetically.
The scope was wrong
Home workers, personal devices or cloud services missing from the declared scope, so the answers never matched the estate being assessed.
The recoveryScope remapped honestly, and the answers rebuilt around what you run.The automatic fail
Unsupported software somewhere in scope: one end of life system fails the whole application, whatever else was right.
The recoveryThe inventory swept. Upgrade, retire or descope, then evidence it.Controls half implemented
MFA on some services, patching on most devices, admin separation for some people. The assessment scores the gaps rather than the effort.
The recoveryThe partial controls finished, which is usually days of work rather than weeks.Answers ahead of reality
The questionnaire described the estate you intended to have rather than the one you have, and the assessor noticed.
The recoveryEvery answer rewritten from verified evidence, so nothing is taken on hope.The Plus audit bit
The technical tests exposed what a questionnaire cannot see: scan findings, downloads that ran, admin accounts in daily use.
The recoveryEach failed test reproduced, fixed and retested before the re-audit is booked.The clock ran out
The two working day fix window passed unused, or the six month application window expired with questions still open.
The recoveryA clean new application, prepared properly so it passes first time.How it works
From failure report to resubmission
The window check comes first, because two working days is the difference between a free resubmission and a new application.
The window check
If the failure is fresh, you may have two working days to fix simple issues and resubmit at no extra assessment charge. The first call establishes what is still possible.
We explain what your report means
Every non-compliant answer reviewed by a licensed assessor: what failed, why, and what the marker needed to see.
Causes fixed
The real causes closed beside your team: scope, MFA, patching, admin accounts and the evidence behind each answer.
The resubmission
Inside the window where possible, or as a properly prepared new application, with answers written from evidence.
Certified and kept
The certificate lands, the renewal rhythm starts, and next year is a renewal rather than another recovery.
Failed Cyber Essentials Plus? The recovery works the same way, with each failed technical test reproduced, fixed and retested before the one day re-audit is booked.
Published fees
The routes back with every fee published
Recovery leads somewhere. Every route out of it is priced here, before you ask.
Cyber Essentials
The route back for a failed self-assessment: certified by our own licensed assessors at the official IASME fee for your size.Best whenThe recovery is done and the certificate is the goal. Fee£320 to £600 + VAT by sizeDays 02
Cyber Essentials Plus
The route back from a failed technical audit: each failed test reproduced, fixed and retested, then the one day re-audit.Best whenThe failure was Plus, and the contract still names it. FeeFrom £1,150 + VAT1 to 3 weeks 03
Readiness pre-assessment
The full dry run before the next attempt: every control checked against the current question set, with a fix plan and a readiness decision.Best whenYou want certainty this time rather than another gamble. FeeFrom £1,500 + VATDays 04
ISO 27001 consulting
When the failure exposed something bigger: gap assessment, implementation and audit support for a full management system.Best whenCustomers are asking for more than the five controls anyway. FeeGap assessment from £8,500 + VATThe alternatives
Three responses to a failed assessment
What you do in the first week decides how much the failure ends up costing.
The feedback report worked through internally, question by question
Fixing the symptom the report names and missing the cause behind it
Depends on how quickly the report makes sense
Strong internal IT, plenty of time and a simple failure
A fresh application elsewhere, hoping the same answers land differently
The same gaps fail again, because the estate did not change
A new fee, a new queue and the same weeks again
Failures caused by the process rather than the estate
A licensed assessor decodes the report and fixes the causes, from £950 + VAT
Low by design: the people who mark assessments know what passes
The window checked first. Simple fixes resubmitted in days
Anyone with a deadline, a Plus failure or a report that does not make sense
Scope
What the fee covers and what sits outside it
You get
A window check first: what can still be resubmitted at no extra assessment charge.
The failure report decoded by a licensed assessor, answer by answer.
A prioritised fix plan, with extended remediation from £2,400 + VAT where you want the fixing done beside you.
Answers rewritten from evidence, ready for resubmission or a clean new application.
A route to stay certified: causes fixed at the root, so next year is a renewal rather than a recovery.
This is not
A pass bought with a fee. The controls must genuinely be fixed. What we remove is the guesswork.
A blame exercise. We explain the report in plain terms and move to fixes. The goal is the certificate, quickly.
A restart from zero. Everything that passed stays passed. The work targets what failed.
A one-off rescue. The causes get fixed, so the renewal arrives as routine rather than drama.
Where to start
The situations that bring people here
Four situations we are usually called into. If none of them fit, speak to an assessor and we will point you at the right first step.
Why Intelance
What you can expect from a licensed body
We mark the same assessments
Intelance is an IASME licensed certification body. The people decoding your failure report mark the same assessments every week, so nothing in it is mysterious to us.
Speed is designed in
The window check happens on the first call, because two working days is the difference between a free resubmission and a new application fee.
Two tiers with both fees published
The review and plan from £950 + VAT, and extended remediation from £2,400 + VAT where you want hands beside yours. Fixed before we begin.
The cause gets fixed
A failed answer is a symptom. The scope, control or evidence gap behind it is the cause, and the fix targets the cause so it holds at renewal.
The route gets questioned
Sometimes the honest answer is that the route was wrong: too early, the wrong level or the wrong scheme. We say so before more money follows, and re-point you across the ladder.
The people behind the work
Recovery is run by our own licensed assessors, with senior consultants closing the gaps beside your team. Nothing is outsourced and nothing sits in a queue.
Recovery guides
All insights
Cyber EssentialsCommon Cyber Essentials failures (and how to avoid them)
Cyber Essentials failures from the marking side: what failing means, the fail reasons ranked as we see them, the recovery plan for a failed assessment, and the 2026 rules that raised the stakes for Cyber Essentials Plus.
24 March 2026 · 9 min read Read the guide
Cyber EssentialsCyber Essentials questionnaire guide: how to answer every question (UK 2026)
24 March 2026 · 14 min read
Cyber EssentialsCyber Essentials requirements explained (UK 2026 guide)
24 March 2026 · 9 min read
Cyber EssentialsHow to pass Cyber Essentials first time (UK step-by-step guide)
23 March 2026 · 9 min readReady to talk?
Send us the failure report
Thirty minutes with a licensed assessor, report in hand: what failed, what it means and whether the window is still open. If the failure landed in the last two days, call rather than book. The clock is running.
FAQs
Questions after a failed assessment
What is failed Cyber Essentials support?
A rapid recovery service for organisations whose Cyber Essentials or Cyber Essentials Plus assessment did not pass: the failure report decoded by a licensed assessor, the root causes fixed with your team, and the resubmission prepared properly, inside the free fix window where possible.
How much does failed Cyber Essentials support cost?
Two tiers with Intelance: the review and plan from £950 + VAT, which decodes the report and hands you a prioritised fix plan, and extended remediation from £2,400 + VAT, where our consultants close the gaps beside your team and prepare the resubmission. Both are fixed before we begin.
We just failed. What should we do first?
Check the date. The scheme gives you two working days from the assessor feedback to fix simple issues, update your answers and resubmit at no extra assessment charge. If you are inside that window, call now rather than researching: hours matter, and many failures are simple enough to fix within it.
What if we missed the two day window?
Then resubmission means a new application and a new assessment fee, which is exactly when recovery earns its keep: the causes get fixed and the new application is prepared to pass first time. Note the other clock too: applications expire six months after you apply.
Why do Cyber Essentials assessments fail?
Six causes cover almost every report: scope declared wrong, unsupported software (the automatic fail and the most common), controls half implemented, answers ahead of reality, technical findings in the Plus audit, and clocks running out. Unsupported software anywhere in scope fails the application outright.
Is a failed Cyber Essentials Plus different?
Yes. A failed self-assessment is about answers and evidence. A failed Plus is about technical findings from the audit. Plus recovery reproduces each failed test, fixes the cause, retests it, and then books the one day re-audit.
We failed with another certification body. Can you still help?
Yes, and most of this work arrives exactly that way. Inside the window, resubmission goes back through your existing body and we prepare you for it. Outside the window, the new application can be made wherever you choose, including with us at the official IASME fee.
Does failing affect our existing certificate?
An existing certificate remains valid until its expiry date. A failed new attempt does not cut it short. The risk is the gap after expiry, which is why recovery pace matters most when a renewal fails close to the deadline.
How fast can we be recertified?
Simple failures fixed inside the window can resubmit within days at no extra assessment charge. Outside the window, most recoveries run days to a couple of weeks depending on the causes, and a failed Plus adds the one day re-audit once every failed test has been fixed and retested.