News

IT for government and public sector

• April 13, 2021 13 Apr'21

  MP told to ditch official email over hacking fears

  MP Tom Tugendhat claims the intelligence services advised him to switch to the Gmail service due to concerns his parliamentary email could be hacked

• April 13, 2021 13 Apr'21

  End of the road for Post Office IT system that destroyed lives

  The Post Office has revealed the end to its controversial Horizon IT system which, through its errors and the Post Office's denial of them, caused huge suffering for hundreds of subpostmasters

• April 13, 2021 13 Apr'21

  Civil Service Data Challenge aims to improve use of data

  Business and government have partnered to launch a Dragon’s Den-style competition to encourage civil servants to come up with ideas on how to improve the use of data

• April 13, 2021 13 Apr'21

  EncroChat lawyers raise questions over use of PII secrecy orders on UK decryption capabilities

  Lawyers claim that public interest immunity certificates may have been used to withhold information on UK intelligence agencies’ ability to decrypt encrypted communications

• April 09, 2021 09 Apr'21

  University students adapt to remote learning but question value for money

  New research outlines students’ fears around the impact of long-term remote education and lecturers’ skills to operate online

• April 09, 2021 09 Apr'21

  Loan Charge Group MPs demand IR35 shake-up to stop contractors becoming ‘zero-rights employees’

  Inquiry by Loan Charge All-Party Parliamentary Group calls on government to tweak IR35 legislation during passage of next Finance Bill

• April 09, 2021 09 Apr'21

  Tech industry sees surge in remote working job postings

  Pandemic drives an increase in demand for “work anywhere” jobs and hybrid skills, research says

• April 08, 2021 08 Apr'21

  IR35 reforms: MPs call on government to clean up UK’s ‘wild west’ contracting labour supply chain

  A 200-strong group of MPs is calling for urgent action from the government to protect contractors from the dubious practices of non-compliant umbrella companies and badly behaved employment agencies just days after private sector IR35 reforms came ...

• April 08, 2021 08 Apr'21

  Post Office Horizon contract extension is part of project to bring Fujitsu work in-house

  The Post Office is to move work done by Fujjtsu in-house when its outsourcing contract ends, and is already recruiting IT experts

• April 08, 2021 08 Apr'21

  HMRC signs reworked, three-year public cloud deal with AWS worth £94m

  HMRC has ripped up and replaced its deal with AWS several months after signing it to tap into cost-savings on Amazon cloud services via the One Government Value Agreement

• April 07, 2021 07 Apr'21

  Digital Markets Unit starts work on codes of conduct for tech giants

  Digital markets regulator officially launched to ensure tech giants such as Facebook and Google cannot exploit their market dominance to crowd out competition and stifle innovation online

• April 07, 2021 07 Apr'21

  Post Office gives controversial Fujitsu contract another year

  The Post Office's controversial contract with Fujitsu has been extended another year to help the organisation manage its exit

• April 07, 2021 07 Apr'21

  Irish employees’ ‘right to disconnect’ enshrined in code of practice

  A code of practice giving employees the ‘right to disconnect’ from work and not engage in electronic communications outside of their normal hours has come into effect in Ireland

• April 06, 2021 06 Apr'21

  Demands for changes to ‘barmy’ rules on digital evidence have government’s ear

  The government is listening to calls for changes in how digital evidence is considered in court, as Post Office IT scandal spells out current rule's inadequacy

• April 06, 2021 06 Apr'21

  CDDO will assess delivery of government digital projects

  Government Digital Service boss Tom Read and the government’s Central Digital and Data Office executive director Joanna Davinson reveal next steps for digital, data and technology in government

• April 06, 2021 06 Apr'21

  GDS seeks director for identity assurance programme

  The new leader will be focused on efforts to deliver a single digital identity system for online public services

• April 01, 2021 01 Apr'21

  EncroChat hearings delayed as lawyers seek disclosure on police hacking

  Court hearings precipitated by police cracking the EncroChat secure mobile phone network have been delayed after defence lawyers request further disclosures on police decryption capabilities

• March 31, 2021 31 Mar'21

  DCMS publishes report on opening data access to stoke economic growth

  Research from Frontier Economics with economist Diane Coyle describes how the government could prime data sharing to stimulate economic growth

• March 30, 2021 30 Mar'21

  Ransomware attack on London schools highlights warnings

  Ransomware attack on Harris Federation comes just days after a fresh NCSC alert for the education sector

• March 29, 2021 29 Mar'21

  Big Tech eclipses telecoms and arms giants as biggest lobbying spenders

  Facebook and Amazon are spending more on lobbying and campaign contributions than any other companies in the US, including those in the arms and telecommunications sectors that have traditionally been the highest political spenders

• March 29, 2021 29 Mar'21

  Backup survey: UK councils’ downtimes five times longer than average

  Backup product supplier Veeam’s freedom of information request finds councils’ average downtime is seven hours and that backup and disaster recovery testing is not done frequently

• March 29, 2021 29 Mar'21

  UK courts face evidence ‘black hole’ over police EncroChat mass hacking

  French investigators have refused to disclose how they downloaded millions of messages from a supposedly secure cryptophone network used by organised criminals – leaving UK courts to grapple with a forensic ‘black hole’ of evidence

• March 26, 2021 26 Mar'21

  Surveillance expert ‘unfairly’ refused job at intelligence regulator after MI5 intervened

  The Home Office unfairly refused Eric Kind, a specialist in criminal justice and UK surveillance law, clearance for a job at an intelligence watchdog after MI5 claimed he was “insufficiently deferential”

• March 26, 2021 26 Mar'21

  Sarah Wilkinson resigns as NHS Digital CEO

  After four years at the helm of NHS Digital, CEO Sarah Wilkinson will leave in the summer of 2021, and the organisation is looking for an interim replacement

• March 26, 2021 26 Mar'21

  NHS Shared Business Services launches £1bn digital hardware framework

  Framework consists of 19 suppliers, and offers user IT hardware products and services to the NHS and public sector organisations

• March 25, 2021 25 Mar'21

  Cyber security complacency puts UK at risk, says NCSC head

  National Cyber Security Centre CEO Lindy Cameron, in her maiden speech in the role, warns of challenges ahead for the UK and sets out the future agenda for cyber

• March 25, 2021 25 Mar'21

  DWP completes in-house VME replacement project

  The department has taken an in-house approach to swapping its virtual machine environment (VME), getting rid of legacy infrastructure and replacing 11 key benefits systems

• March 25, 2021 25 Mar'21

  Deliveroo faces pushback from investors and riders ahead of IPO

  Two of the UK’s largest fund managers have said they will not buy shares in Deliveroo because of concerns over workers’ rights

• March 25, 2021 25 Mar'21

  NHS Wales shapes up ambitious plans for digital patient-facing app

  Computer Weekly looks at NHS Wales’ project to create a patient-facing app and a collaborative ecosystem for technology suppliers and NHS providers to deliver joined-up care

• March 25, 2021 25 Mar'21

  Government faces judicial review into plans for Post Office Horizon inquiry

  Subpostmasters that suffered great hardship at the hands of the Post Office are applying for a judicial review of a government inquiry into the scandal, which they see as a "whitewash"

• March 25, 2021 25 Mar'21

  Liverpool announces test and development area for drone technology

  Project aims to stimulate investment opportunities, employment and skills for the region

• March 25, 2021 25 Mar'21

  NHS to digitise the ‘red book’ by 2023

  Every child born from April 2023 will have a digital ‘red book’, or personal child health record, Matt Hancock has promised

• March 24, 2021 24 Mar'21

  Ex-Post Office CEO Paula Vennells walked away from IT scandal with over £400,000 in pay and bonuses

  Former Post Office chief was paid over £400,000 when she left despite the organisation being involved in what would become the biggest miscarriage of justice in UK history

• March 24, 2021 24 Mar'21

  IWM uses StorCycle to free capacity for all-flash SAN upgrade

  Imperial War Museums set to embark on unstructured data archiving project that will archive cold data to tape and free up capacity for a move to IntelliFlash all-flash SAN

• March 24, 2021 24 Mar'21

  Prime minister says people should be held to account for Post Office IT scandal

  Boris Johnson agrees with MP that those responsible for the Post Office Horizon scandal should be brought to book

• March 24, 2021 24 Mar'21

  Post Office was told in 2013 that Fujitsu witness was unreliable in subpostmaster prosecutions

  The Post Office was warned that a former Fujitsu employee had misled courts when giving evidence on its behalf

• March 23, 2021 23 Mar'21

  Former Skyscanner COO will lead Scotland’s tech-led recovery programme

  Following his independent review of the Scottish tech sector, Mark Logan will oversee a programme to establish the country as a world-class technology hub

• March 23, 2021 23 Mar'21

  NCSC beefs up support for education sector after spate of attacks

  Refreshed guidance from the NCSC recommends a defence-in-depth strategy as schools and universities face a renewed wave of cyber attacks

• March 23, 2021 23 Mar'21

  Scottish government AI strategy majors on ethics and inclusion

  Scottish government announces artificial intelligence strategy that involves the creation of a Scottish AI Alliance to be drawn from across society, including trade unions and companies

• March 23, 2021 23 Mar'21

  Commission calls for adult social care to get digital revamp

  A commission on adult social care has called for the government to fund a personalised social care innovation programme, as well as invest £450m to replace outdated care and housing technology infrastructure

• March 23, 2021 23 Mar'21

  UK defence strategy strengthens AI, cyber and satellite spies

  The nature of warfare is changing. Electronic warfare will need to be a key component of the UK’s defence strategy

• March 23, 2021 23 Mar'21

  Interview: Ivan McKee, Scottish innovation minister

  Scotland’s innovation minister talks to Computer Weekly about the country’s new digital strategy, the importance of inclusion, and why the strategy is underpinned by ethical thinking

• March 23, 2021 23 Mar'21

  Home Office completes transfer of all business apps to Oracle Cloud

  Home Office has completed its deployment of Oracle’s Cloud Applications suite to all its functions across 35,000 staff, ahead of other government departments

• March 22, 2021 22 Mar'21

  Post Office staff instructed to shred documents that undermined its claims Horizon was robust

  Barrister advising the Post Office in 2013 stated that destroying documents would "amount to a conspiracy to pervert the course of justice"

• March 19, 2021 19 Mar'21

  Government bids final goodbye to Gov.uk Verify

  Cabinet Office parliamentary secretary Julia Lopez confirms launch of “discrete” successor to Gov.uk Verify

• March 19, 2021 19 Mar'21

  Post Office IT scandal executive forced out of job at Football Association of Wales

  Angela van den Bogerd has left her role at the Football Association of Wales, following criticism of her part in Post Office IT scandal

• March 18, 2021 18 Mar'21

  Government to bail out Post Office which can’t afford to pay compensation to subpostmasters

  The Post Office does not have enough money to pay compensation to the subpostmasters it wrongfully prosecuted

• March 18, 2021 18 Mar'21

  NHS will get shared care records by September 2021, says Matt Hancock

  The health secretary sets September 2021 target for shared care records roll-out, and wants to explore potential of moving patient data being held in proprietary systems to the cloud

• March 18, 2021 18 Mar'21

  Subpostmasters in Court of Appeal to end 20-year torment

  Subpostmasters heading to Court of Appeal to clear their names in what is potentially the biggest miscarriage of justice in English legal history

• March 17, 2021 17 Mar'21

  Digital Green Certificate proposed for travel in Europe

  Digital Green Certificates will supposedly help re-establish freedom of movement within the European Union

• March 17, 2021 17 Mar'21

  Uber classifies drivers as workers after Supreme Court ruling

  Ride-hailing firm will pay its UK drivers minimum wage following court ruling, but has diverged from the court’s interpretation that drivers should be paid from when they log in, not just when passengers are on board

• March 17, 2021 17 Mar'21

  Capita restructures to simplify its business

  Business services supplier creates two core units that focus on public sector and commercial enterprise customers and will sell off non-core assets

• March 17, 2021 17 Mar'21

  Cyber sector welcomes PM’s defence review

  Security commentators approve of measures to improve the UK’s cyber resilience, strengthen its R&D and skills base, lead on the development of new technology and promote a free, open, peaceful and secure global internet

• March 16, 2021 16 Mar'21

  Children’s learning held back by digital schooling, NAO report finds

  Children’s socio-economic status has affected their experiences with digital learning, and most teachers consider their pupils to be, on average, three months behind where they would be expected to be

• March 16, 2021 16 Mar'21

  One-fifth of all UK tech investment went to just 10 scaleup firms in 2020

  Annual Tech Nation report shows UK technology firms saw record levels of investment in 2020, but a significant proportion of it was concentrated in a small number of scaleup enterprises

• March 16, 2021 16 Mar'21

  Uber and Ola ordered to hand over more data to drivers

  A Dutch court has rejected Uber and Ola’s claims that drivers collectively taking action to access their data amounts to an abuse of their individual data access rights, laying the ground for drivers to form their own union-controlled data trust

• March 16, 2021 16 Mar'21

  MoD partners playing fast and loose with confidential data

  Clear spike in data breach incidents at defence partners may reflect better reporting standards, claims MoD

• March 16, 2021 16 Mar'21

  Government calls for input into Covid-19 vaccine passports

  Evidence gathering exercise will inform the development of the UK’s proposed Covid-19 vaccine passport scheme

• March 15, 2021 15 Mar'21

  UK plans ‘full spectrum’ approach to national cyber security

  PM Boris Johnson expands on proposed National Cyber Force and plans to set up a north of England Cyber Corridor

• March 15, 2021 15 Mar'21

  Judges refuse EncroChat defendants’ appeal to Supreme Court

  Experts suggest Parliament and Investigatory Powers Tribunal need to consider the implications of a court decision on police use of data from the EncroChat phone network

• March 15, 2021 15 Mar'21

  Parliamentary PACA Committee slams Gove over Covid-19 data failures

  Parliamentary Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee publishes report critical of government accountability regarding data behind the decisions taken during the coronavirus pandemic

• March 15, 2021 15 Mar'21

  Government plans for fresh AI strategy

  The government wants to “unleash the power of AI” and be “the most pro-tech government ever”, according to digital secretary Oliver Dowden

• March 14, 2021 14 Mar'21

  Arrest warrants issued for Canadians behind Sky ECC cryptophone network used by organised crime

  The US has issued arrest warrants for the CEO of Sky Global and a former distributor for racketeering, aiding and abetting the distribution of illegal drugs by supplying encrypted phones to criminals

• March 12, 2021 12 Mar'21

  PAC slams Home Office digital border programme

  The Home Office has failed to acknowledge and be transparent about Digital Services at the Border programme problems, according to the Public Accounts Committee

• March 12, 2021 12 Mar'21

  UK technology business created every 30 minutes in 2020

  New figures on UK business creation show surge in entrepreneurs setting up technology businesses during 2020, while the sector’s hiring efforts climb back to pre-pandemic levels

• March 11, 2021 11 Mar'21

  Potential miscarriages of justice of Scottish subpostmasters move to full review

  The Post Office Horizon scandal gets bigger as subpostmaster prosecutions in Scotland are reviewed

• March 11, 2021 11 Mar'21

  UK digital regulators set out plans to strengthen cooperation

  Digital Regulation Cooperation Forum outlines plans for the coming year, marking a shift towards a more collaborative regulatory approach

• March 11, 2021 11 Mar'21

  Scotland launches digital strategy

  Updated strategy aims to equip Scotland for technological transformation post-coronavirus and focuses on building an ethical digital nation

• March 11, 2021 11 Mar'21

  Scottish farm subsidy body slashes dev time with Pure all-flash

  Rural directorate ditched hybrid flash EMC SAN for Pure all-flash storage and cut developer time in half, while beta testing Cloud Block Store and planning container project

• March 10, 2021 10 Mar'21

  UK launches fellowship to attract tech talent to government

  Programme jointly run by Number 10 and Government Digital Service will see 10 leaders enlisted to address key challenges in the public sector

• March 10, 2021 10 Mar'21

  Met Police chooses Capgemini as strategic IT infrastructure services provider

  Capgemini has a history of providing the force with day-to-day technology services, and will now deliver its infrastructure services under the Pegasus programme

• March 10, 2021 10 Mar'21

  Welsh FA boss linked to recruitment of controversial former Post Office executive to step down

  Football Association Wales CEO Jonathan Ford is stepping down after losing a vote of no confidence triggered by the controversial appointment of Angela van den Bogerd, who was involved in the Post Office IT scandal

• March 10, 2021 10 Mar'21

  Government’s refusal of freedom of information request about Post Office scandal ‘deeply concerning’

  MP condemns department’s ‘bizarre’ rejection of freedom of information request linked to Post Office IT scandal

• March 10, 2021 10 Mar'21

  Police crack world’s largest cryptophone network as criminals swap EncroChat for Sky ECC

  Belgian and Dutch police have breached the encryption of users of Sky ECC, the world’s largest cryptophone network. There are significant parallels with the international police operation against the EncroChat cryptophone network which led to ...

• March 09, 2021 09 Mar'21

  Belgian police raid 200 premises in drug operation linked to breach of encrypted phone network

  More than 1,600 police and law enforcement officials conduct drug raids after the compromise of an encrypted mobile phone network that has parallels with EncroChat

• March 09, 2021 09 Mar'21

  Prime minister yet to respond to serious subpostmaster concerns over Horizon IT scandal inquiry

  Subpostmaster victims who have spent millions bringing the Post Office IT scandal to light have received no reply to their concerns from Boris Johnson

• March 08, 2021 08 Mar'21

  US teases retaliation over state-backed cyber attacks

  Consequences for alleged perpetrators of the SolarWinds attack are expected within the next few weeks

• March 08, 2021 08 Mar'21

  Foreign Affairs Committee launches inquiry into tech and the future of UK foreign policy

  Committee looks for evidence on how the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office can respond to opportunities and challenges brought by new and emerging technologies

• March 08, 2021 08 Mar'21

  Cumbria and Nottinghamshire care homes pilot diagnostic telemedicine

  Two care homes trial telemedicine system that allows GPs to carry out detailed patient assessments without leaving the surgery

• March 08, 2021 08 Mar'21

  Government to change unfair private prosecution rules used to prosecute innocent subpostmasters

  Government agrees to change private prosecution rules that were abused by the Post Office in its pursuit of subpostmasters wrongly accused of financial crimes

• March 08, 2021 08 Mar'21

  Nordic innovators change emphasis on gender equality in society

  Female technology innovators in the Nordics take a different approach to trying to improve opportunities for women

• March 05, 2021 05 Mar'21

  Nottinghamshire schools suspend online learning following cyber attack

  Cyber attack on central trust that manages secondary schools in Nottinghamshire leaves them unable to access IT systems and deliver remote lessons

• March 05, 2021 05 Mar'21

  Innovation underpinned by trustworthy governance, says CDEI

  Public support for greater use of digital technologies such as AI depends on how much trust people have in its governance, says report

• March 04, 2021 04 Mar'21

  Parliament bill to create the UK's Advanced Research and Invention Agency

  The ‘high-risk, high-reward’ UK equivalent of ARPA will be provided with powers to fund and develop projects, including exemption from freedom of information requests and 10 years to prove its own success

• March 03, 2021 03 Mar'21

  Budget 2021: Tax relief for data and cloud, digital skills for SMEs, more IT firepower for HMRC

  Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced a slew of tech-related measures in this year's Budget, which also included a visa review for highly-skilled IT professionals and a £375m fund for innovative businesses

• March 03, 2021 03 Mar'21

  UK’s Arkivum up for €4.8m EU science data archive project

  CERN-led multi-petabyte scale research data archive bid will use Google cloud and compete with AWS-based and open source designs from other providers Libnova and Onedata

• March 03, 2021 03 Mar'21

  IR35 private sector reforms: Hays calls on Treasury to delay April 2021 start date by a year

  UK and Ireland managing director of recruitment giant Hays writes to HM Treasury to demand a delay and review of the government’s plans to roll out the IR35 reforms to the private sector from April 2021

• March 02, 2021 02 Mar'21

  How Aberdeenshire Council is using Cherwell’s ITSM platform

  Tech leaders are seeing opportunities to expand the remit of IT service management beyond IT

• March 02, 2021 02 Mar'21

  EU seeking pan-European Covid-19 passport solution

  The European Union’s proposal could see the creation of a Covid-19 vaccine passport to enable travel across the EU

• March 02, 2021 02 Mar'21

  HMCTS rolls out digital case management system

  The Common Platform digital system aims to make it easier to share and manage case information across the criminal justice system

• March 02, 2021 02 Mar'21

  Reading Borough Council to overhaul IT infrastructure

  Council and its children’s services partner award contracts worth £13.2m for shared IT infrastructure

• March 01, 2021 01 Mar'21

  Digital secretary Dowden outlines UK post-Brexit data approach

  The UK government is searching for a new information commissioner with an updated remit to use data to support growth and innovation, and plans on reaching new international data partnerships

• February 26, 2021 26 Feb'21

  DCMS gives tablet devices to people with learning disabilities

  The government is providing thousands of free tablet devices to those with learning disabilities to help them stay connected

• February 25, 2021 25 Feb'21

  UKtech50 2021: The most influential people in UK technology

  Computer Weekly has announced the 11th annual UKtech50 – our definitive list of the movers and shakers in the UK tech sector

• February 25, 2021 25 Feb'21

  UKtech50 interview: Sarah Wilkinson, CEO, NHS Digital

  The UKtech50’s most influential person in UK IT in 2021, NHS Digital CEO Sarah Wilkinson, talks about how the Covid-19 pandemic has impacted the speed of projects, staff pressures and key leadership lessons

• February 24, 2021 24 Feb'21

  Facebook’s AI doctoral research programme makes inroads into UK

  Facebook collaborates with University College London to bring artificial intelligence doctoral research programme to the UK, with aim to open-sourcing the findings

• February 24, 2021 24 Feb'21

  Vaccine passports prove an ethical minefield

  Privacy campaigners warn that vaccine passports may turn out to be discriminatory and invasive, while technologists agree careful consideration must be given to their design

• February 24, 2021 24 Feb'21

  Internet companies should provide real-time data on disinformation, Lords told

  Fact-checking experts tell House of Lords inquiry that upcoming Online Safety Bill should force internet companies to provide real-time information on suspected disinformation, and warn against over-reliance on AI-powered algorithms to moderate ...

• February 24, 2021 24 Feb'21

  Sadiq Khan wants innovators to support London's recovery

  Mayor of London announces partners and goals for the capital’s £1m Resilience Fund, and an extra £500,000 to develop design-led solutions aimed at the challenges presented by the crisis

• February 24, 2021 24 Feb'21

  Appointment of disgraced former Post Office director triggers vote of no confidence in Welsh FA boss

  Vote of no confidence in Football Association of Wales boss triggered by recruitment of former Post Office executive who tried to mislead a judge in IT trial