Year in review: How technology defined 2021’s biggest stories
Digital and data once again had a starring role in supporting – and, occasionally, hampering – government’s work this year. PublicTechnology looks back at the most significant events.
HMRC achieves ‘significant improvement’ in IT uptime in FY21
Annual accounts for in-house IT company show number of ‘red days’ fell by a third, while...
Cabinet Office spends £6m on upgraded Google Workspace deal
Two-year contract provides access to a range of software tools
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Government at ‘tipping point’ over digital, says think tank
Institute for Government report identifies issues with leadership, legacy systems and retention of skilled staff, while warning of Brexit ‘distraction’.
Public sector IT workers failing to use G-Cloud, says survey
More than half of public sector IT workers have not used G-Cloud in the past year, while just a quarter say cloud adoption is an important challenge for the next year, a study has said.
Lessons from Seoul: How eGovernment can drive citizen engagement
Scott Moore, business analyst for the Scottish Improvement Service, won a Socitm scholarship to research digital public service trend in Seoul during the summer. Here he looks back on he learnt during his summer investigating the city’s digital transformation.
Government told to up its game on artificial intelligence
MPs have urged the government to set a strategy to deal with the ethics and technology associated with rapid advances in artificial intelligence and robotics.
Cracking the ‘us versus them’ mentality: Singapore’s GovTech CIO on digital services for the masses
This week saw the official launch of the Singapore’s dedicated government tech agency GovTech. Rebecca Hill spoke to the organisation’s chief information officer Chan Cheow Hoe about the issues facing government digital services and how his team is addressing them.
‘It’s cheaper, democratic and what users want’: Why councils need to think about accessibility
RNIB inclusion guru Steve Tyler tells Gill Hitchcock that it makes sense for councils to build accessibility into their digital services.
Nesta issues innovation and technology to-do list for Scottish cities
Scotland’s cities could improve “significantly” on the way they use technology and innovation to drive growth, a report from the CITIE partnership has said.
Councils urged to work together to challenge big vendors
Local government digital officers have said that councils need to be more honest about poor products from big suppliers and work together to demand change.
Total G-Cloud sales approaching £1.4bn, government reveals
The latest G-Cloud sales figures show a slight decline in monthly sales in July, with local government sales remaining at just 5% of all-time sales.
Approach transformation projects with digital mindset not just digital tools, says Capita solutions director
The idea that digital transformation will ever be finished is an “illusion” and government should focus on establishing long-term leadership to ensure evolution at a more organic pace, a Capita director has said.
Surrey NHS trust launches Internet of Things trial for improving dementia care
Surrey and Borders Partners NHS Trust has launched a £5m trial of Internet of Things technologies to improve healthcare for people with dementia.
Local digital standard will need work to become a reality, conference told
Councils must not let the local government Digital Service Standard become another set of principles that "gets shoved in a drawer” and isn’t made a reality, a conference has heard.
Ministry of Justice bags BEIS’s chief technology officer
The Ministry of Justice has named the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy’s chief technology officer as its new chief digital and information officer.
ICT chief: Pace of change and poor leadership hampering councils' digitisation
Local government is struggling to keep up with the pace of change in technologies and true digitisation is at risk of being held back by poor leadership, according to Tower Hamlet’s head of ICT.
GDS promised 'national presence' as it takes over DWP's Digital Academy and leaves Aviation House
The Government Digital Service is to take ownership of the Department for Work and Pension’s Digital Academy to offer training to civil servants across Whitehall, as Cabinet Office says digital transformation strategy due by the end of the year.
GDS to update ‘cloud first’ policy
The Government Digital Service has reiterated its commitment to the cloud and pledged to refresh its ‘cloud first’ policy and promote it more widely.
Information Commissioner’s Office seeks local opinion on FOIs
The Information Commissioner’s Office is conducting a survey of councils to find out what their information governance frameworks are like.
Microsoft’s UK data centre signals a turning point for public sector cloud compting
Mark Skilton of Warwick Business School says that the opening of Microsoft’s three UK data centres marks another step on the road to full public sector adoption of cloud computing in the country.
Whitehall ‘not cool enough’ to attract top cyber security talent
The government needs to offer tech specialists more freedom and creativity if it wants to recruit the most talented people, according to a recruiter in the Ministry of Justice.
Ministry of Justice offers £90,000 for deputy director roles in digital team
The Ministry of Justice is seeking a chief information security officer and a deputy director of digital delivery.
Cloud-first agenda failing to take hold in councils, survey says
An analysis has shown that the adoption of cloud computing varies widely across councils, with barriers including out-of-date procurement policies and reliance on in-house IT infrastructure.