Ministers have revealed that the reimagined ‘digital centre’ will maintain a familiar brand name on the shopfront, while a new approach to tech funding from HM Treasury is also planned
The Central Digital and Data Office is to be reintegrated into the Government Digital Service as part of a wide-ranging overhaul announced today by ministers.
The reunification comes four years after CDDO was created by being spun out of GDS with a remit to focus on cross-government strategy. As well as bringing the two digital units back together, the newly expanded GDS will also incorporate the Incubator for Artificial Intelligence and the Geospatial Commission.
The shake-up comes six months after the new Labour administration announced that GDS, CDDO and i.AI were all being moved from the Cabinet Office to the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, to create a new “digital centre of government”.
Meanwhile the post of government chief digital officer – vacated in September following the departure of Mike Potter – will be readvertised shortly. The role will also come with a position as a second permanent secretary of DSIT, and the successful candidate will lead the digital and data profession across the civil service.
DSIT has also announced today that it will be home to a new team that has been created to “cut across Whitehall barriers to join up public services, so people do not have to tell dozens of organisations the same thing”. An early area of focus for this team will be examining how to improve and streamline public services for those with long-term health conditions.
Another entity unveiled today is a Digital Commercial Centre of Excellence – an expert procurement unit with a remit to help organisations across the public sector “negotiate costly contracts together to save money, and open opportunities for smaller UK start-ups and scale-ups to drive economic growth”.
The top priorities for the new-look digital centre – and the rest of government – will be set out in a Digital and AI Roadmap to be published in summer 2025. This document will align with investment set out in the upcoming multi-year government spending review.
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During that process HM Treasury will also “experiment with a new approach that recognises how modern technology works”, and looks to provide greater long-term flexibility, rather than simply an “initial burst of investment then a smaller allowance for maintenance costs”, according to government.
Peter Kyle, secretary of state for science, innovation and technology, said: “Sluggish technology has hampered our public services for too long, and it’s costing us all a fortune in time and money. Not to mention the headaches and stresses we’re left with after being put on hold or forced to take a trip to fill out a form. My department will put AI to work, speeding up our ability to deliver our Plan for Change, improve lives and drive growth. We will use technology to bear down hard to the nonsensical approach the public sector takes to sharing information and working together to help the people it serves. We will also end delays businesses face when they are applying for licenses or permits, when they just want to get on with the task in hand – growth. This is just the start.”
Included elsewhere in the government’s “blueprint” for digital are plans to create a Technical Design Council featuring “data and AI experts” and intended to help direct the public sector’s use of technology to “tackle the toughest technical challenges”.
A new Responsible AI Advisory Panel will bring in representatives from frontline public-service provision and civil society groups to help inform “safeguards and assurances”.
Hello Humphrey
Alongside the revamp of government agencies and units, DSIT today unveiled a suite of tools powered by artificial intelligence and designed to speed up and simplify the work of civil servants.
The package of programs – which has been dubbed ‘Humphrey’, in reference to the fictional permanent secretary in 1980s sitcom Yes, Minister – includes five services developed by “a team of expert AI developers from DSIT”.
This includes Consult, which is designed to analyse and collate the responses to government consultations, and then present officials “with interactive dashboards to explore what the public are saying directly”.
The Parlex tool will enable policy professionals to perform similar analysis of “decades of debate from the Houses of Parliament”, while Minute will provide users with automated transcripts and summaries of meetings.
Redbox uses generative AI to assist officials “with day-to-day tasks, like summarising policy and preparing briefings” and, finally, Lex has been created to analyse and summarise complex legislation.