A year on from an initial blueprint, GDS has published its full roadmap of objectives for the next few years. PublicTechnology runs through the key plans, priorities and programmes included.
“For the sleep-deprived parent, trying to sort childcare. The homeowner, getting planning permission. The worried patient, booking a doctor’s appointment.”
According to technology secretary Liz Kendalll (pictured above), these are the people whom government hopes will most benefit from its new digital and tech strategy. Coming 18 months after the Labour administration came to power and swiftly shook up government’s core tech units – and one year after the publication of an initial ‘blueprint’ – A roadmap for digital government commits to a range of actions to improve services, augment infrastructure, and transform the operations of the state.
And, as Kendall puts it, “ultimately, to put power and control back in your hands, when you use any government service”.
While she and her cabinet colleagues may intend that this autonomy is most keenly felt by those nursing newborns or planning home improvements, it seems unlikely that many of these potential beneficiaries will have read the roadmap and taken stock of its plans and proposals.
Such documents are, invariably, largely read by those with a vested interest and/or a lot of time on their hands.
Which is where we come in.
Beyond the minister’s rousing intro, the roadmap goes on to set out scores of individual initiatives and ambitions across six core areas: services; artificial intelligence; infrastructure; talent; funding; and transparency.
Here are some of the plan’s biggest and boldest proposals, as well as those that may be less conspicuous – but no less critical.
Joining up public sector services
The first section of the roadmap is also its busiest, with plans broken down into 15 areas across two sub-categories, respectively covering accessibility and transformation.
The first, and perhaps most significant area addressed by the plan concerns fostering “stronger local and central government collaboration”. Leading this work will be the new GDS Local unit established within the Government Digital Service.
Beginning next month, GDS and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government – with support from the Local Government Association – “will bring together digital leaders from local and central government to explore future collaboration”, the roadmap says.
Going into the spring, other initiatives will include piloting the delivery of some local government services via the GOV.UK App. GDS will also work with sector representatives to create “a strategic vision for local government technology”.
Also put forward in the roadmap is a commitment to “embedding digital inclusion to make services accessible to all”. This work will encompass measurable “inclusion metrics” being enshrined in government’s service standard. The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, meanwhile, will this summer publish “new inclusive service principles and patterns”.
The tech plan reiterates plans to undertake the rollout of several major new platforms, including the GOV.UK Wallet and App, and the UK’s new digital identity.
Another eye-catching ambition is geared towards “transforming how businesses interact with government online”. To do so, government hopes to offer “an easy-to-find ‘front door’ to personalised information, services, and support for businesses”.
The roadmap adds: “Working towards the aim of delivering a seamless and personalised experience for businesses, our next phase of work will develop the functionality of business.gov.uk. We’ll test solutions to help businesses overcome challenges, using data to anticipate user needs and preferences. More detailed plans, created by working closely with businesses, will be shared during 2026.”
The transformation-focused section of the runs through digital plans in a range of service areas, including: NHS healthcare; child safeguarding; immigration and borders; employment and careers; benefits; driving and vehicle services; tax and customs; and services for prisoners.
It also rubber stamps the recent announcement aimed at “improving customer service through CustomerFirst” – a new unit within GDS. The team has a remit to “transform up to four priority public services to improve them for citizens by March 2028”, with a focus on learning from best practice in private-sector customer service.
“We’ll take a radical approach to redesign customer contact and casework away from the constraints of legacy systems,” the roadmap says. “This includes making better use of AI and other technologies and will save public money.”
Individual upgrades include ongoing implementation of “speech and translation AI for frontline probation staff” and the introduction of new services to the NHS App, including mental-health support and access to “a new home-testing service for HPV screening”.
HM Revenue and Customs is also set to launch several major new citizen-facing platforms this year.
“If you’re a Pay As You Earn customer, you’ll have access to a new online service which will give you direct access and control over your tax position, making it easier and quicker to check and update your income, allowances, reliefs and expenses,” the roadmap says. “If you use Self Assessment services, you’ll have expanded digital services to help you register and improve the process if you no longer need to file. If you’re a newly liable employee, you’ll also be able to report Child Benefit through your tax code, avoiding the need to register for Self Assessment in the first place.”
Harnessing the power of AI for the public good
The second core section of strategy the outlines proposals in four areas concerned with the use of artificial intelligence.
This includes “promoting a test-and-learn approach across the public sector through the prime minister’s AI exemplars” . This encompasses various programmes on which work began last year, including “pilot projects [which] included AI tools to support planning decisions, improve tax compliance, assist probation casework and help NHS staff discharge patients”.
“Projects now being scaled more widely include tools to find and understand content on GOV.UK, improve education content and diagnose health conditions,” the roadmap adds. “By transforming services in a responsible and considered way, these projects are already showing their potential to deliver wide-scale impact across public services.”
“The Returnship programme brings in technical colleagues who have been out of work for 18 months or more, the majority of whom are women. This programme aims to improve diversity and attract specialist talent.”
These will be complemented by work aimed at “driving public sector productivity with innovation and prototyping” – the centrepiece of which is the Humphrey suite of AI tools. One of these – Extract, which can digitise paper maps and written documents – will be made available to all local authorities from May onwards.
The roadmap also sets a goal of “using AI and technology in education to improve pupil outcomes and reduce staff workload” and, finally, “creating practical guidance for responsible AI adoption”.
Led by GDS, this will include the publication in several months’ time of new procurement guidelines intended to help public bodies invest in AI responsibly. Other initiatives will include a newly convened Responsible AI Advisory Panel, due to meet for the first time in March, as well as an interactive version of government’s data ethics guidance.
Strengthening and extending digital and data public infrastructure
This section of the plan addresses the need for upgrades of outdated systems and processes, as well as outlining ambitions for major new investments in tech architecture.
But first will come work focused on “understanding our digital systems to improve them”. Beginning this summer, GDS “will publish a new approach for central government organisations to give us a clearer, fuller view of how and where legacy technology is being used today”. This will be followed by the introduction of “stronger standards for maintaining records of digital assets, including legacy technology and critical national infrastructure”, as well as tweaks to the GovAssure regime of cyber-resilience assessments.
Towards the end of 2026, GDS will also work with departments across government in a bid to “improve security across government supply chains by mapping them more clearly, setting and enforcing baseline security standards”.
The roadmap provides detail on previous and upcoming work on “upgrading outdated legacy systems in key public services”. This encompasses remediation of the tech infrastructure of public bodies including the Department for Work and Pensions, Home Office, and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
Also outlined in the roadmap is a plan for a new “Secret Community Cloud [that] will offer a secure cloud computing environment to both the national security community and the wider public sector. This platform is due to launch in March.
GDS will also lead efforts to deliver “joined-up standards and approaches… frameworks for secure, ethical data use… [and] common systems and platforms for all of government to use”.
This last area of focus will see the digital unit publish a “national cloud strategy”, which aims to build on government’s own long-standing ‘cloud first’ tenet.
“GDS will build on this landmark policy by introducing a new strategy for all sectors to make the most of the cloud as a national asset,” the roadmap says. “Through guiding principles, this strategy will help to drive economic growth and innovation and support secure, resilient and sustainable public services.”
As part of a commitment to “building the platforms to share and use data effectively”, the document provides an update on the planned National Data Library – the flagship government tech policy set out in Labour’s manifesto for the 2024 general election.
“[In] early 2026… DSIT will share progress on the National Data Library, with delivery informed by diverse user needs and expert advice. Early projects will showcase new ways of using public sector data to positively impact people’s lives.”
Elevating leadership and investing in talent
The roadmap dedicates a whole section to people and skills, including a pledge to help “elevate digital leadership” throughout the civil service.
Doing so will involve implementing a new scheme that “will focus on supporting the development of high potential technical leaders and their career progression into the SCS (senior civil service) and will include topics such as strategic leadership, commercial acumen and system-level thinking”.
Beginning in April, applicants for all government jobs at director or director general level will be assessed on “digital and data skills and behaviours, with digital expectations stated in job descriptions and reflected in performance objectives”.
The strategy also sets an expectation – although not a mandate – that, from the end of this year onwards, all central and local government entities should “have a digital leader on their executive committee and a digital non-executive director on their board”.
This drive to get more specialists in senior roles will be accompanied by initiatives aimed at “building all civil servants’ digital, data and AI skills”, including a new “core digital curriculum for all civil servants… [that] will give civil servants at every level the tools and knowledge to work in a modern digital government”.
33
Number of objectives set out in the roadmap, across six areas
364 days
Length of time between the release of government’s digital blueprint and the publication of the roadmap
2030
Conclusion of the roadmap’s plans
125
Number of records now published on the Algorithmic Transparency Recording Standard, which the roadmap says is all records in scope of the publication mandate
4
Potential number of priority services to be transformed by the new CustomerFirst unit in GDS
The roadmap also recognises the importance of “getting the digital, data and AI specialists government needs”.
To help meet the challenge of doing so, in March government will launch a “Returnship programme”.
“This programme brings in technical colleagues who have been out of work for 18 months or more, the majority of whom are women,” the document says. “This programme aims to improve diversity and attract specialist talent.”
Over the summer, government will also publish a new “digital workforce 2030 strategy… that supports departments to increase their digital and data workforce and plan for the future”.
Funding for outcomes and procuring for growth and innovation
A lot of work has already been undertaken in support of an objective of “changing how we fund digital work to focus on outcomes”, with pilots of three new funding models being launched in September 2025. This includes: “staggered funding for innovative technologies; staggered funding for live services; and outcome‑based portfolio funding”.
In April, GDS will lead an effort to introduce new assurance measures to “enable improved management of digital, data, and technology initiatives, from their inception through to delivery, [which] will incorporate the agile funding models in conjunction with capturing transparent pipeline data, simplifying case management and using insights gathered from our performance framework to support decision making”.
By October 2028, a newly implemented system will mean that HM Treasury “will be able to access and track departments’ finance and performance data in near real-time for the first time”. This will enable “better quality analysis and challenge” of spending plans across government.
Alongside this improved analysis will be efforts aimed at “simplifying spending and approval processes to deliver new and improved services faster”.
Again, significant progress has already been made here, with the rollout of a new digital Get approval to spend service beginning in January last year. This is accompanied by a new Central Digital Platform developed by the Government Commercial Function (GCF) for the purpose of “publishing, managing and analysing procurement, [and which] will make buying new services and tools much more accessible and transparent”.
In March of this year, GCF will unveil a “a single place to store, find and provide supplier information”. The following month, the unit will begin to “publish machine-readable data about government spending… [which] will allow us to use technology to analyse, reuse and share information about what government is buying, enabling a more strategic approach that delivers better value for money”.
Around the end of the year, GDS and the Treasury will start to apply new digital assurance measurers to all forms of spending control – not just digital, data and technology.
The roadmap also sets an ambition for “improving the public sector’s buying power through the Digital Commercial Centre of Excellence”, (DCCOE) which was created a year ago and sits within DSIT.
The centre will play a key role in publishing government’s first Digital Sourcing Strategy, which is due for release in March.
“This is a government strategy that defines what we create, how we do it and how we enable access to innovation through small and medium-sized enterprises,” the roadmap says.
In April, DCCOE will work with the Crown Commercial Service on a to “design a more cost-effective approach for buying laptops” across government. This will include specified savings targets.
Around the end of 2026, the aim is “agree an ‘All of Government’ central cloud contract”.
“The first central contract of its kind, this will create a standardised, marketplace-based framework that maximises government’s purchasing power,” the roadmap says. “This will speed up the public sector’s transition to the cloud while ensuring better diversity of suppliers and value.”
Committing to transparency and driving accountability
The final section of the roadmap begins with a commitment to “working in the open to build better digital services and public trust”.
A key element of this objective to date has been engagement work on the part of GDS to encourage departments to release data via government’s Algorithmic Transparency Recording Standard – which led, by the end of the year, to the publication of “all currently identified in-scope algorithmic tools”, according to the roadmap.
“CustomerFirst will take a radical approach to redesign customer contact and casework away from the constraints of legacy systems. This includes making better use of AI and other technologies and will save public money.”
In March, GDS will begin work to “analyse published records to determine how well ATRS records increase public understanding of, and trust in, government’s use of algorithmic tools”. The digital unit has also committed to shortly begin “publishing roadmaps for major products” that will be openly available on GOV.UK.
The final goal set out in the roadmap is “creating a consistent approach to measuring how digital services perform”.
In support of this, several months ago GDS began pilots of a new “digital performance framework for central government departments”. From this August onwards, department will begin sharing – with each other, although it is unclear whether this will also include public sharing – annual performance data. Alongside this, “secretaries of state [will be] held accountable in regular reviews, [which] will encourage open working and drive evidence-led improvements across digital government”.
“The Returnship programme brings in technical colleagues who have been out of work for 18 months or more, the majority of whom are women. This programme aims to improve diversity and attract specialist talent.”
“Departments will start sharing annual outcome-based data on the performance of their services with each other, with secretaries of state held accountable in regular reviews.”
