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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Leeds to build hybrid-cloud shared services platform
City seeks IT partner to build platform for use across the public sector – and possibly the third sector too
Digital Marketplace godfather Tony Singleton joins consultancy Advice Cloud
Hugely experienced civil servant will help SMEs engage better with government in new role as strategic advisor
'GDS needs departmental buy-in - but for some its name is still mud', says techUK public services head
Departments urged to reverse habit of working in silos and embrace pan-government tech strategy for the good of citizens
CCS points users of major expiring frameworks towards G-Cloud
Vehicles catering for digital delivery of driving theory tests and managed email services for central government - worth a cumulative £750m-plus - will not be replaced
Don’t lose sight of ‘cloud first’ commitment, Cabinet Office warned
Cloud Industry Forum warns that 'momentum and progress on the Government Transformation Strategy could stall' as it flags lack of G-Cloud sales updates and 'poorly articulated needs'
GDS tells public sector to 'be bold and unpublish' unnecessary web pages
Government Digital Service lifts lid on success of project to simplify process of starting a business online
Crown Prosecution Service refreshes computing to drive digitisation and remote working
Agency’s director of digital transformation Mark Gray discusses revamp of client and datacentre computing estate, including increased use of cloud
SnapChat and fax machines – report finds that ‘the digital revolution has bypassed the NHS’
Report from DeepMind Health finds that health service has a haphazard hotchpotch of digital, paper, and other improvised systems
Government invests £16m in three sites for 'world's first' 5G trial project
University of Surrey, Bristol University, and King's College London join forces to become 5G hub
Why the government should protect IT spending
IT reseller Insight's public sector chief argues that failing to invest in digital could hurt the government's ability to deliver services
Disappointing digital drags on UK civil service world ranking
Whitehall places only fourth, behind Canada, New Zealand, and Australia
Could the UK become the Silicon Valley of government technology?
Former No. 10 policy adviser Daniel Korski tells Sam Trendall about his plans to create an armada of UK tech players to compete with the best California has to offer – and why he needed to leave Whitehall to do so
'It's not a choice between privacy or innovation', ICO tells NHS trusts
After Royal Free is found to have breached Data Protection Act, information commissioner Elizabeth Denham offers four-point checklist for other trusts in their use of technology and data
How the public sector can remove barriers to cloud
James Butler of software and IT services firm Trustmarque examines how to ‘bridge the gap’ between private and public sector adoption
DVLA sets target for abandoning legacy systems
The DVLA has announced plans to move off the majority of its legacy systems within three years.
Public facilities should do away with downtime
Ensuring spaces can be booked by the public and other bodies can bring in revenue and create efficiencies, argues Chris Smith of Kajima
Virtual ID cards mooted for settled EU citizens
The UK would introduce an Estonia-style virtual identity card for EU nationals who settle in the UK following Brexit, according to reports.
Is hybrid IT worth the hassle?
Joe Kim of SolarWinds looks at what government IT pros can expect from hybrid IT, and whether implementing it will provide any benefits
Scottish NHS invites bids for £65m managed services framework
Four suppliers expected to tender to supply patient administration and clinical systems to primary care providers
WannaCry NHS attack - busting the myths
Des Ward, information governance director at Innopsis, reflects on the real story behind the WannaCry cyber-attack.