At the end of a busy and varied year for public service technology and those engaged in its provision, find out which stories attracted the most attention from our readers
PublicTechnology was not short of things to write about in 2024.
There was an incumbent government keen to make good on its legislative plans before the uncertainty of an election – which then brought a raft of new representatives, as well as an incoming administration with its own policies and proposals for public sector tech.
All the while there was the inescapable background – and sometimes foreground – noise created by the likes of artificial intelligence, disinformation and cyber warfare, as well as chronic tech skills shortages, and the continual need to upgrade critical infrastructure.
But a quick look at the stats on our most-read articles reveals that, over the course of the past 12 months, a number of stories rung out loud enough to be heard over this cacophony. Here is a rundown of our top five.
Accounting for multiple positions among our most-read stories of the year – including the top spot – was our ongoing coverage of proposals for the Department for Work and Pensions to be granted powers to monitor the bank accounts of benefit claimants.
As a story which perfectly exemplifies the tension between the potential for help and the possibility of harm created by public sector use of digital and data, it is an apt number one.
First proposed by the then Conservative government in autumn 2023 – and set to be taken forward by the new Labour administration – the planned new laws will require banks and building societies to proactively provide the DWP with information on account holders who, having understated their income or savings, are suspected of receiving benefits in error or under fraudulent premises. Currently, government can only undertake checks of account data for a named individual who is already under suspicion of fraud.
PublicTechnology first reported on formal policy documents that revealed government’s expectations that the additional surveillance will result in a huge spike in prosecutions. DWP forecasts that the measures will result in about 7,400 benefit fraud prosecutions per year – about a third of which will require legal aid support, and 250 of which are expected to result in custodial sentences. Currently, an average of fewer than 400 prosecutions are brought annually.
In the weeks following the announcement of the proposals, ministers were frequently forced to fend off criticism from civil society groups and parliamentarians. Then pensions minister Paul Maynard asserted that the measures “will only impact a minority of people” and “only minimal information will ever be shared” by financial institutions.
Despite such attempts at reassurance, by May 2024 a group of 30 MPs decided to table a a parliamentary motion warning that the data-gathering plan “risks creating a Post Office Horizon-style scandal”.
The motion said: “[This house] rejects the idea of treating the disabled, sick, carers or those looking for work as criminals by default; further believes that the government already has significant powers to review the bank statements of fraud suspects under existing laws; and calls on the government to remove these powers from [planned legislation].”
While stories about high-end AI and analytics may appear more eye-catching, our next most-read article of the year reflected a more prosaic – but no less important – issue for the public sector tech landscape. Namely, that government needs to equip its employees with serviceable devices, and to do so without spending public money needlessly.
In February, we exclusively revealed that the Cabinet Office was working on a plan to “centralise and standardise” the provision of laptops and mobile phones to civil servants across all departments.
According to GOV.UK, there are 601 separate and discrete departments, agencies and public bodies that collectively comprise central government. Most of these will currently be responsible for their own procurement of phones and laptops, and their provision to staff.
To support a possible unified model, civil service digital and commercial experts worked with external consultants to conduct a “baseline analysis” of current devices in use across government, including spending levels, products, costs, and delivery models. The exercise also mapped the capabilities and functions required of devices used by civil servants, and used this information to create “a set of suggested standard technical design builds for government laptop and mobile phones, based on user research and technical input”.
Home Office signs BT to new £2bn ESN deal as 2029 target set for ‘full transition’
In position number three was a story that may well have featured in each of the past 10 years.
Indeed, it was 2015 when mobile network operator EE was first awarded a £650m-plus deal to provide mobile services to the UK’s planned Emergency Services Network. Since then, the troubled ESN programme has seen its delivery date delayed by at least a decade, while projected costs have doubled to £12bn.
All the while, the contract with EE – which is now owned by BT – was subsequently extended to an end date of 31 December 2024, with the value of the engagement rising to £826.75m.
In August, we reported that this long-standing agreement had been terminated and replaced with a new deal set to run for a term of seven years and three months, plus a potential extension of one further year. This engagement is valued at £1.85bn plus VAT, equating to an overall worth of £2.22bn.
When the two parties first signed a contract, the UK’s first 5G services were still years away from launching but, having been introduced in 2019, about 90% of buildings around the country can now connect to 5G. The replacement engagement with EE provides for ESN to benefit from the next-generation network.
Our story also revealed that the Home Office’s official line is now that it expects “users to be fully transitioned to ESN, including a c. 2-year transition period, by 2029”.
While this may sound upbeat it is worth repeating at this stage that the originally intended date for the switch to be achieved was 2019.
Major government tech supplier SSCL faces probe after MoD data breach
An annual roundup would not be complete without a major public sector cyber incident.
This year, the most high-profile breach was suffered by the Ministry of Defence; in May, an attack allegedly orchestrated by the Chinese state, exposed personal information on as many as 270,000 servicemen and women and veterans. The information accessed by attackers – which included names, addresses, and bank account details – was stored on the systems of an external payroll software system provided to the MoD by Shared Services Connected Ltd, commonly known as SSCL.
The supplier’s name will be familiar to many in government – including those that feature on a client list that, alongside the MoD, includes the Department for Work and Pensions; the Home Office; the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs – and several of its arm’s-length bodies; the Ministry of Justice, as well as HM Courts and Tribunals Service and HM Prison and Probation Service; the Cabinet Office; and the Department for Transport. The company also works with various other central government agencies and London’s Metropolitan Police Service and claims to provide payroll services for more than 500,000 public-sector employees, and administer the pensions of over two million military veterans.
With such a broad public-service footprint, shortly after the breach of military data, then defence secretary Grant Shapps announced that government has “not only ordered a full review of work within the MoD, but gone further and requested from the Cabinet Office a full review of [SSCL’s] work across government”.
Shapps added: “The concerning thing about this particular incident is that SSCL is a primary contractor, rather than a subcontractor, but… our intention—indeed, our instruction—is to go right the way through [the supply chain];… we take this incredibly seriously. It is unacceptable that it happened, and we will take every possible measure, once we have got to the forensic truth of what happened, including against the contractor and any subcontractors.”
Featuring numerous times across our most-read articles of the year was our coverage of the Labour party’s plans for public sector technology – and, following the election, the new administration’s early progress in delivering on them.
Sneaking into our top five was our feature rounding up the major tech takeaways from the Labour manifesto, including proposals for a National Data Library, expanded functionality of the NHS App, and greater standardisation for police IT.
A few weeks later, and after barely 72 hours in office, new deputy prime minister Angela Rayner announced that she would be considering government intervention in planning submissions for two major datacentres that had recently been refused by local authorities.
This story – our second most-read article of the year – reflects the challenge for government in managing local and individual concerns with national and international tech ambitions.
Shortly after this announcement, one of Rayner’s cabinet colleagues – science, innovation and technology secretary Peter Kyle – revealed that the new government would be undertaking a major shake-up of Whitehall’s digital and data landscape.
As part of which, the Government Digital Service and sister agency Central Digital and Data Office, as well as the Incubator for Artificial Intelligence, were moved from their long-time home of the Cabinet Office to become part of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology.
PublicTechnology examined the key questions that will define the success – or otherwise – of the overhaul, and also sought the views of sector experts.
In November, we also had an exclusive opportunity to catch up with new AI and digital government minister Feryal Clark, who provided an insight on Labour’s efforts to “completely transform digital government”.
Do not be surprised to see further updates on this transformation in the 2025 edition of this round-up.
