Recent Blog Posts

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 ...