The government is set to spend £12bn on IT this year - an
increase of 4% from last year - according to analyst firm
Gartner.
The figure, which excludes the £2.3bn overhaul of NHS IT, is
expected to rise to £13bn by 2005.
Gartner said the government must work harder to demonstrate how
rising investment in IT is benefiting the public, or risk a
backlash from voters.
"Technology has the ability to deliver fantastic improvements
across society, but governments must prove that it has broader
benefits to the people that pay for it, or they risk public
disillusionment," said Andrea Di Maio, research vice-president at
Gartner.
Di Maio also called on Whitehall to appoint a chief information
officer to oversee the implementation of technology in the UK
public sector. He said a government CIO would help ensure that
e-government standards are adhered to across the public sector.
"The UK is quite advanced in terms of standards for e-government,
such as the E-Government Interoperability Framework, but a public
sector CIO would enforce these," said Di Maio.
Support for a government CIO is gaining momentum. Last month
e-envoy Andrew Pinder, speaking at a National Computing Centre
conference, called for a CIO to oversee and co-ordinate government
computing.
Pinder said his departure next year from the e-envoy post,
coinciding with the departure of the director of the Office of
Government Commerce Peter Gershon, presented an ideal opportunity
to appoint a CIO who would combine both roles and provide IT
leadership.
The CIO should also make sure that IT projects satisfy specific
criteria across government, according to Di Maio. These would
include efficiency gains, benefits to citizens and compliance with
key policies, he said.
The government is planning a common systems strategy to standardise
IT across Whitehall through the development of common data sets and
the use of off-the-shelf software.