Digital, Data & Technology

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.

The government has announced that the G-Cloud 6 tender will be published next week.