Recent Blog Posts

We’ve all seen the detective shows on TV. The cops find a CCTV picture of the likely “perp”. The put-upon junior detective is tasked with wading through a database of photos in the hope of finding ...

Is the UK government about to make a new announcement on its plans for a single digital identity for citizens to access online public services? On 22 September, two seemingly coordinated ...

The next phase of the UK government’s plan to support a market of certified, interoperable digital identity providers is set to kick into gear, with digital infrastructure minister Matt Warman due ...

It was nearly 10 years ago, in October 2011, when Computer Weekly first reported on concerns about the IT project behind Universal Credit. That was five months before the new Coalition government’s ...

This is a guest blogpost by Peter Campbell, Data & AI practice director at Kainos The latest stage in the National Data Strategy – the Government’s response to consultation – shows the UK has a ...

To nobody’s surprise, efforts by a group of peers to force the government to accelerate progress on digital identity in the UK foundered in the House of Lords yesterday (20 April 2021). Baroness ...

The UK government has finally admitted in public for the first time that its flagship digital identity programme, Gov.uk Verify, is dead. This will be no surprise to anyone following the project, ...

A flurry of recent activity suggests the government is ramping up its plans for the long-awaited demise of Gov.uk Verify, its failed attempt to produce a digital identity system for online public ...

In September 2019, the then civil service chief executive John Manzoni told Computer Weekly that the new digital leader he wanted to recruit for the UK government would “have to be very wise, very ...

“Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it,” or so the oft-repeated quote from philosopher George Santayana goes. Where the UK’s Home Office is concerned, a far more meta version is ...

After months – some would say years – of frustration and delay, tech suppliers have largely welcomed the latest government initiative to establish a digital identity ecosystem in the UK. The ...

We’re not ashamed to admit we don’t understand how the graphic tweeted by Boris Johnson to congratulate president-elect Joe Biden came to faintly display “Trump” in the background. Downing Street’s ...

It was the summer of 2017, and a stock photo taken in Girona two years earlier was about to go global. That same summer, an Atlanta photographer walked through the doors of a dance studio to help ...

The ailing Gov.uk Verify digital identity system was given a Frankenstein’s monster-like burst of energy back in April, when the lockdown-induced surge in Universal Credit applications brought ...

For many years, the UK IT community pined for a government that wants to put technology at the heart of the country’s future; one that understands the importance of bringing digital and policy ...

The UK government has finally unveiled its response to the digital identity consultation that concluded a year ago this month, and along with that announced a new Digital Identity Strategy Board to ...

Data analytics seems to have emerged as a cure-all for the current Conservative government. Indeed, it is being positioned as a critical element in the wider revolution of Whitehall that Dominic ...

On 14 March 2021, we will mark the tenth anniversary of the official approval for the development of a single government-wide digital identity system. Save the date in your diaries. Intended to ...

The Government Digital Service (GDS) has taken its fair share of criticism in recent years – including from Computer Weekly - and much of it justified. But there’s little doubt the team at GDS HQ ...

As the Government Digital Service (GDS) prepares for the winding down of its Gov.uk Verify service, its future plans for digital identity are becoming a little clearer. In recent weeks, GDS has ...

These times of ours, you might have heard, are being described as both “strange” and “unprecedented”. There’s also been some talk of a “new normal”, although while for some that means extra-long ...

The Government Digital Service (GDS) has published its first blog post on Gov.uk Verify since July 2019. Given the dearth of communications about the troubled digital identity system, it tells a ...

In the past couple of weeks, nearly a million people have signed up for Universal Credit as a result of the Covid-19 coronavirus crisis. Never has the UK government’s move to a digital-first world ...

There is much to think about while we are in lockdown if we want to live in a relatively free, safe and democratically accountable society afterwards, for however long it takes us to rebuild ...

Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s first Budget was a step towards making good on the new government’s promise to be “unashamedly” pro-technology. Offering £22bn in annual funding for research and ...

The remarkable levels of secrecy and avoidance of scrutiny around the Gov.uk Verify digital identity scheme continue – and if anything, seem to have reached new levels of absurdity. Last week, ...

Imagine you’re a skilled, ambitious IT professional living outside the UK and you want to maximise your earning potential and your exposure to the latest technology. You’re assessing where in the ...

IR35 has claimed its first big name, after Eamonn Holmes failed to convince the courts he’s a freelancer in his case against HMRC. For the humble freelancer, the introduction of the kaleidoscopic ...

The great and the good of the digital identity sector gathered in London yesterday (13 February) for the Think Digital Identity for Government conference – a popular bi-annual event that always ...

It may have gone unnoticed with the January 14 end of support deadline for Windows 7, but Microsoft’s 10 year old OS, had one last Patch Tuesday update. And , surprise, surprise, this included a ...

There’s a new UK government, one with a comfortable majority, and it’s clear it wants to use that advantage for radical change. The new prime minister says the government has “a mission to ...

There are not enough words to fully express the depth of scandal and outrage that should accompany the conclusion of the High Court case that finally and completely found that the Post Office ...

In 2004, Computer Weekly received a letter from Alan Bates, a former subpostmaster in Craig-y-Don, a coastal suburb of Llandudno in north Wales. It’s that long ago that the letter arrived ...

When Computer Weekly set out to compare and analyse the tech and digital policies in the major political parties’ manifestos for the 2019 General Election, the article extended comfortably to ...

Prime minister Boris Johnson and his controversial special advisor, Dominic Cummings, are “secretly” working on a plan to gather citizen data from across Whitehall to be used for targeting ...

The Government Digital Service (GDS) has published details of the planned pilot project for opening up passport data to companies that wish to offer digital identity services. GDS recently held a ...

The Government Digital Service (GDS) insists that its plans for Gov.uk Verify “remain on track” despite the withdrawal of three of the five remaining identity providers (IDPs) supporting the ...

Gov.uk Verify – the government’s flagship digital identity system – faces a critical few months ahead. Again. As the clock ticks down towards the end of March 2020, when further public investment ...

It’s traditional upon the coronation of a new Prime Minister to write a list of all the things they need to address in the tech and digital sectors. It would be a long list – digital skills, IT ...

The latest select committee report by MPs into the progress of digital government in the UK has resurrected a question that has reared its head on several occasions in the past – do we need a ...

Three months ago, the Government Digital Service (GDS) appointed the first ever director of digital identity, Lisa Barrett – tasked with taking on the troubled Gov.uk Verify programme. Barrett ...

I like the Tech UK response to the Doteveryone report but we also need the 80% of optimists to also join the political party of their choice and work to produce policies that will: Address the ...

Gov.uk Verify is the Theresa May of digital government. The embattled Prime Minister faces calls to quit from all around – her own Conservative MPs, grassroots Tory activists, the right-wing press ...

Chancellor of the Exchequer addresses fintechs on day two of Innovate Finance Summit 2019

The digital transformation of government and public service delivery is well under way and is by now – hopefully – unstoppable. It’s taken longer to get here than it should have, and it will take ...

Hello and good luck, to Lisa Barrett  - the newly appointed director of digital identity at the Government Digital Service (GDS). She's taken on what many people outside GDS see as something of a ...

The Post Office likes to describes itself as “the nation’s most trusted brand”. Anyone following the latest developments in the increasingly heated High Court case about its Horizon IT system would ...

It’s not commonly known outside Whitehall that by the time the National Audit Office (NAO) – Parliament’s independent spending watchdog – publishes a report, it will have been through several ...

It’s understandable that people express cynicism when a politician – particularly one with a clear ideological bent – proclaims that “digital” or “technology” can solve the core Brexit issue of the ...

NHS England’s chief digital officer (CDO) jumping ship to join the private sector is the latest example of one of the key issues facing digital and technology projects across the public sector, ...

There’s been a lot of excitement over the new NHS Long Term Plan. The plan sets out how the NHS will spend the extra £20.5bn a year, gifted to the health service by prime minister Theresa May as a ...

The government recently announced plans that – despite facing delays and setbacks – a new Emergency Services Network (ESN) will be phased in from the beginning of 2019. It will replace the legacy ...

Despite senior government and public sector officials often banging on about the importance of transparency and openness, in reality, it’s almost a cultural taboo for civil servants or anyone else ...

Dominic Raab, the Secretary of State for Exiting the EU, has been in hot water for his late-dawning admission of the importance of the Dover-Calais route to the UK’s trade in goods. Raab was ...

Gone, or so it seems, are the days when Computer Weekly laments after every Budget statement from the Chancellor of the Exchequer that tech has been overlooked. There is little doubt that ...

Australian government report finds that there is a better technology than blockchain for every use considered in its report

Depending on your perspective, Gov.uk Verify is now either secure in its future at the heart of the UK’s emerging digital identity ecosystem, or it has one foot in the grave and is on the way to ...

Blockchain answer to Irish border question, but what about Facebook?

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has been conducting a review of digital identity since taking over policy responsibility from the Government Digital Service (GDS) in ...

The government’s flagship digital identity system Gov.uk Verify has become a car crash in motion, accelerating towards its demise. The Cabinet Office’s project watchdog has condemned Verify by ...

Will Liam Maxwell’s departure be the straw that broke the camel’s back when it comes to government’s progress on digital?

When Theresa May’s unstoppable reshuffle tour eventually reached as far as grinning app namesake Matt Hancock, he found himself thrust from his role as secretary of state for digital, culture, ...

The new DCMS secretary of state may not have much experience when it comes to digital, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't give him a chance. One thing's for sure though: Whether you want to call it ...

Slowly, slowly, the UK government is getting better at big IT projects. Thanks to Whitehall watchdog, the Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA), we’re able to track the improvements in major ...

Gavin Williamson unwittingly summoning Siri on his iPhone whilst updating Parliament on the fight against Daesh has marked him as national security’s weak link, which couldn’t really be any less ...

Matt Hancock, the secretary of state for digital, culture, media and sport (DCMS), is not everyone’s cup of tea – especially when that cup is Matt Hancock branded. But regardless of whether you’re ...

The government announced this month a brand new method for submitting divorce applications: it can now all be done online! The digital route is intended as a less stressful option than the fusty ...

Last week, the Government Digital Service (GDS) dedicated a whole day to talking about what it’s up to, at its first Sprint event in two years. About time too, many observers said, since GDS seemed ...

There’s rather a lot going on in government IT at the moment. Last year’s ambitious transformation strategy set challenging aims of overhauling back-office systems across Whitehall, building an ...

The Windrush scandal has revealed many disturbing things about government policy that have nothing to do with IT. But the issues raised amply demonstrate the importance of technology considerations ...

On April 6th at the launch of the Apprenticeships Anthology Sir Gerry Berragan, the Chief Executive of the Institute for Apprenticeships outlined progress over the past year and updated his 10 ...

I met Mike Bracken, the first leader of the Government Digital Service (GDS), in 2011, not long after he had started the job, for an off-the-record briefing about his ambitious plans to overhaul IT ...

There is no shortage of talent, only of employers who train that talent. Thirty years ago it took around 18 months turn a University Graduate into a competent analyst programmer. During that second ...

Yesterday, the government reluctantly agreed to share with the public a series of documents on the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) controversial Universal Credit programme. I say ...

The details in the Prime Minister's speech, including that dismissed as Geekspeak in the mass media, helps explain what is really at stake in the negotiations and why the BBC and the Online ...

If you happen to be an ardent Brexiteer, a true believer in the UK government’s desire for “innovative solutions” to avoid a hard border with the Republic of Ireland, we have good news for you. The ...

You wouldn’t exactly classify the leaders of the UK tech sector as a bunch of liberal lefties. For all the stereotypes of bearded Shoreditch sandal-wearers that surround much of the nascent startup ...

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has been consistently criticised for its lack of transparency since the controversial Universal Credit programme was launched nearly eight years ago. The ...

There’s a growing body of opinion that the government’s flagship digital identity system, Gov.uk Verify, has now become a major hindrance to the development of the UK’s digital identity ...

It’s nice that we have a prime minister that chooses to use one of her most high-profile speeches of the year to talk about technology. It’s equally good that her chancellor similarly discussed the ...

The demise of construction and services giant Carillion has brought fresh scrutiny of outsourcing in government. Frankly, you could find some event almost every year that brings fresh scrutiny of ...

I was tempted to write this blog post on Computer Weekly's Downtime blog, where we try to look at the lighter side of the world of IT. But I'm not entirely sure this is a joke. While budgetary ...

The switch from graduate recruitment to degree-linked apprenticeships has begin. It is delayed only by lack of information on the latter. That will change if the pilots being organised under the ...

Did you know the UK government has a minister for identity? It’s Baroness Susan Williams, whose full responsibilities go under the grander title of minister of state for countering extremism. ...

In this guest post, Rob Anderson, principal analyst for central government at market watcher GlobalData, takes a look at the implications of delaying the launch of G-Cloud 10 by up to a year.

Chancellor Philip Hammond has announced the most tech-friendly Budget ever. It wasn’t only the headline figures that mattered though, welcome as they were, including more than £500m of funding, ...

The government’s digital minister, Matt Hancock, is a busy and enthusiastic advocate for the UK’s digital economy. In the past month alone, he’s given five speeches, published an independent review ...

There’s an interesting story doing the rounds this week that highlights some important issues around the UK government’s aim to have a cloud-first policy for IT purchasing. The original scoop, ...

Politics, rightly or wrongly, has an impact on government technology projects. It’s an inevitable part of having a democracy and political prowess can be used to drive transformation, but can it ...

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) appears to have a very different view of how the IR35 tax avoidance reforms are affecting the public sector compared to many of the IT contractors Computer Weekly ...

HM Revenue & Customs’ (HMRC) new chief digital and information officer (CDIO), Jacky Wright, appears  to be an excellent appointment. She’s spent six years in senior roles at Microsoft, most ...

Slowly, technology issues are rising to centre of the Brexit debate – as they should. This week saw the publication of the UK government’s Data Protection Bill – our implementation of the European ...

Halfway through its 2016/17 financial year, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) digital team had spent £60m over budget, a freedom of information (FoI) request submitted by Computer Weekly ...

There has been barely a passing public mention from the government about the need for new or redeveloped IT systems to support whatever trading and immigration regime the UK has when it leaves the ...

The general election has passed by, new ministers are in place, and so the Government Digital Service (GDS) is coming back out of its shell. As it embarks on a new parliamentary cycle, GDS is a ...

I feel a little sorry for Caroline Nokes, announced this week as the latest minister responsible for digital government - the third to take on that mantle in less than a year. She’s clearly a ...

In one throwaway line, largely ignored among the wider Brexit comments in his Mansion House speech today (20 June 2017), chancellor of the exchequer Philip Hammond exposed the true scale of the ...

Kainos electoral registration software and DUP constituency MPs is the undoubted winner. IT industry lobbyists are the biggest losers.

Amid all the chaos, recriminations and excitement on the morning after the General Election, the future of digital government is far from the minds of anyone other than those of us with a personal ...

You would expect, of course, that a publication such as Computer Weekly would call on whoever wins the 2017 general election to put the digital economy on its list of immediate priorities. While ...