The move sees a shift of leadership in government IT away from CIOs and towards departmental chief technology officers (CTOs) and “digital leaders”: the latter were appointed within departments earlier this year. Head of the GDS Mike Bracken wrote an online article pointing out the gap in government activity: “Many of our CIOs are performing as quasi-procurement and contract managers, rather than really driving business performance based on meeting user needs,” he said.
The civil service will retain a cross-government CTO, Liam Maxwell, who is to take on 14 additional staffers to help him support departments on digital services. Meanwhile, “digital leaders” will meet regularly to discuss how best to deliver services online.
The move has also seen government’s chief operating officer, Stephen Kelly, appointed as government senior information risk owner. This job was performed by his predecessor, Ian Watmore, and is an oversight role scrutinising risks taken across government on technical projects.