Digital, Data & Technology

No Whitehall talks for Sturgeon, off-payroll fines, Maude's Lords rumours & the end of 'catastrophic' Whitehall IT - our regular wrap of Whitehall headlines

The government's customer service must better suit user needs, according to a CSW webchat

Government Digital Services director Mike Bracken predicts shakeup for Whitehall structures as a result of digital service delivery

Cabinet Office releases social media guidance to get more officials online

UK transparency ranking demonstrates “felt accountability”, says Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude

The government has reversed a decision to remove agile development services from the Digital Marketplace after criticisms of their new home on the Digital Services framework (DS).

The civil service’s first chief executive has an ambitious agenda to define the next era of Whitehall reform – whatever those “damn politicians” might be planning. Jess Bowie meets him

The government is to undertake further consultation on proposed new laws aimed at requiring public sector bodies to accept electronic invoices, after a consultation raised fears over costs

Keith Foggon was appointed as the first director of digital forensics and intelligence at the Competition and Market Authority’s (CMA’s) Cartels and Criminal Group (CCG), on Friday 5 December. 

Further cuts and reforms in Whitehall could save an extra £10bn by 2017/18, George Osborne announced in his Autumn Statement earlier today. But where are the cuts coming from?

The Cabinet Office does not maintain a detailed database for grant programmes, so has no way to identify if discrepancies have occurred in the last five years, a National Audit Office (NAO) report revealed today.  

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has issued 48% more smartphones this year than in 2009. 

The UK is committed to open contracting despite not adopting the Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS) yet, Open Data Institute (ODI) technical director and Open Contracting Partnership Advisory Board member Jeni Tennison told CSW. 

The department response to the Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) has been inconsistent, despite the initiatives potential to help government rebalance the economy by harnessing new technology and creative individuals, said the Centre for Business Research (CBR) at the University of Cambridge in a report published yesterday.

The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) has become a sponsor for TechHub Swansea. Mike Bracken (pictured), head of the Government Digital Service, launched the initiative in Swansea today. 

Dame Fiona Caldicott has been appointed as the first national data guardian for health and social care, secretary of state for health Jeremy Hunt will announce today.

The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) have now moved their digital Vehicle Management service to private beta.

UK standards body BSI has published a guide to help standardise data and systems to help local government guide the creation of “smart cities”.

Civil servants working in the Ministry of Justice’s (MoJ’s) shared services centres face redundancies and office closures following a seven-year contract to outsource services to Shared Services Connected Limited (SSCL), says Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS). 

G-Cloud suppliers and services could be updated every three months, the government revealed yesterday in tender documents for the sixth iteration of the framework.

The Marketplace, designed to make it easier for government to do business with IT providers of all sizes, was launched today by Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude.

Cabinet Office digital director Mike Bracken and Open Data Institute chairman Nigel Shadbolt said that there is still more to do if the government, and UK, want to share and access meaningful open data, at the ODI’s 2014 summit on open innovation on 4, November.

Public sector ICT cloud services will account for more than half of worldwide software, server and storage spending growth by 2018, according to new analysis.

Public officials should be free to try new approaches without fear of being “hauled in front of ministers, the Public Accounts Committee or being investigated by the National Audit Office”, the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) says in a report published today.