Digital, Data & Technology

Serious questions remain about accountability for Universal Credit in light of Robert Devereux and Iain Duncan Smith’s latest appearance before MPs, the Institute for Government has said.

Baroness Martha Lane Fox is stepping down from her role as the government’s digital champion, after more than three years in the job.

The gov.uk website is to be adapted to ensure that the civil service communications profession can more easily use it to run campaigns, the government’s executive director for communications Alex Aiken (pictured below) has told Civil Service World.

New Zealand's civil service believes that their central government needs one single web portal. Their digital team write about how they’ve taken inspiration from gov.uk.

Of all the agendas set out last year in the government’s Civil Service Reform Plan, the fastest progress is being made on ‘digital by default’, a CSW survey has found. Over half (53%) of civil servants said their organisation is making rapid or steady progress on this agenda, and 55% said that the reform would 'dramatically' or 'significantly' improve the civil service.

Many civil servants work in the government analogue service

Andrew Dilnot, chair of the UK Statistics Authority, told the Public Administration Select Committee last week that he has written “six or seven” letters to departments complaining about the distortion of official statistics.

Officials should publish more freely; the media more carefully

Digital technology offers tremendous opportunities for people of all ages. Being able to buy groceries or access a huge amount of information at the click of a button is fantastic, as is the ability to keep in touch with loved ones via email, video link and social media. However, although the opportunities offered online are immense, there are real challenges for some when it comes to getting digitally connected in the first place.

The development of new ICT procurement frameworks by the Government Procurement Service (GPS) has been “paused” while a review is undertaken to ensure they’re offering the best value for money.

The new head of the Welsh Civil Service, Derek Jones, will take up his position on 8 October after a four year hiatus from the civil service. He replaces Dame Gillian Morgan, who retired in August. Jones was the director of business and partnerships at Cardiff University, and prior to this role he spent 30 years as a civil servant, including as a senior director.

Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude has said that the civil service is moving away from an “old-fashioned” culture of “presenteeism”, and argued that remote working can increase productivity.

Civil servants support moves to increase the transparency of government and to devolve powers down to local government and communities, but are strongly opposed to outsourcing delivery to the private and voluntary sectors, an exclusive poll by CSW has found.

Unacceptable IT is "pervasive" across government and some people in the profession don't have the capability to bring about the changes required, the retiring head of the government's G-Cloud programme, Chris Chant, has written in a blog post on a government website.

Sir Bob Kerslake, the head of the civil service, has established a blog and an account on the social networking site Twitter, so that he can better engage with civil servants across the UK and the globe.

The recently published Cabinet Office tender to procure digital identity assurance (IDA) services for the DWP is to be used across the whole of government, Mike Bracken, executive director of digital at the Cabinet Office has said.

The NHS could host commercial advertising on its website in the near future, a deputy director at the Department of Health said on Monday at a seminar held by CSW in conjunction with the Post Office.

Departmental select committee chairs have provided mixed reviews of the departments they scrutinise for a Civil Service World Special Report, which has found that 40 per cent of them are dissatisfied with departments’ responses to their reports.

SMEs working in technology are to be invited to participate in a ‘product surgery’. The aim is to increase commissioners’ knowledge of products and services that could achieve the objectives laid out in the government’s ICT strategy.