
Funding reluctance caused seven-year hitch for emergency alerts system
Senior Cabinet Office official tells committee of MPs that, following testing exercises for national alert

London mayor Khan backs seven tech firms in ‘poverty prevention challenge’
Competition run by local authority in the capital awards up to £50,000 each to companies

All cryptography investments to be covered by government tech spend controls
Updated fifth version of guidance reveals that the National Cyber Security Centre will take on

Leaders of major digital projects to be brought into anti-corruption regime
Changes to government’s transparency measures will mean that SROs for tech and reform schemes are

Defra to spend £43m this year on addressing ageing apps
Environment department also reveals plans to exit from three legacy datacentres this summer and halve

HMRC reveals £5m cost savings from chatbot use during pandemic
Conversational online text tools were able to direct many customers to the service or content

Downing Street automation unit becomes permanent Whitehall fixture
Cabinet Office minister has revealed that the Incubator for Automation and Innovation – which sits

Government digital function more than doubles cash savings in FY22 to £376m
Annual data reveals that best practice and smarter use of digital and IT provided an

Government warned of risks of letting AI firms influence policy
In light of a new report from the Ada Lovelace Institute, experts and shadow ministers

Civil service pay: Senior officials should be rewarded for productivity and delivery, minister says
Cabinet Office minister Jeremy Quin backs plans to expand the use of capability-based compensation –

MoJ invests in social listening tool to tap into ‘significant volumes of conversations that impact our reputation’
Ministry signs three-year deal for software that will enable officials to keep track of two

Procurement: Report calls on Cabinet Office to use data and controls to ensure competition
A new study from the National Audit Office urges department to do more to analyse

‘Part of the team’ – secondment scheme to bring workers from tech giants into government
Initiative to allow commercial sector representatives to spend time on loan to departments will be

DSIT appoints leader to oversee tech policy and programmes
Emran Mian, recruited from the levelling up department, will lead work in areas including the

HMRC IT spend tops £1.1bn in FY23 in drive to ‘modernise infrastructure’
Tax agency’s annual accounts reveal increase in tech investment and set a target to eliminate

Digital departmental staff transfer system could prevent 2,000 payroll errors a year
Deployment of cross-Whitehall platform is one of a number of ways the Government People Group

MPs blast Home Office as being ‘disconnected from reality’ on Emergency Services Network
The department cannot say when the multibillion pound platform will finally be ready or how

‘Disparity in investment over two decades’ has created uneven digital maturity across NHS, minister says
Minister with oversight of health service data and tech says that government plan to invest