News

IT for government and public sector

• June 12, 2025 12 Jun'25

  UKtech50 2025: the longlist of the UK’s influential tech leaders

  Each year, Computer Weekly launches a search for the most influential people in UK IT, asking the tech community who it thinks should be in the top 50 – here is the longlist of everyone nominated for 2025

• June 12, 2025 12 Jun'25

  Apple encryption row: Does law enforcement need to use Technical Capability Notices?

  History shows that law enforcement can bring successful prosecutions without the need for the Home Office to introduce ‘backdoors’ into end-to-end encryption

• June 12, 2025 12 Jun'25

  France is committed to AI, says president Macron

  The French president wants homegrown artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure and thinks plans to create a European cloud platform dedicated to AI will be a ‘game changer’

• June 12, 2025 12 Jun'25

  Sweden gets help pulling its sovereign AI socks up

  Urgent government calls for more high-powered sovereign computers to fulfil Swedish goal of building a more powerful AI industry answered by foreign financiers, US tech and Europe’s AI emergency fund

• June 12, 2025 12 Jun'25

  MPs to investigate potential for government digital identity scheme

  Amid growing calls for a national digital ID scheme, Home Affairs Committee launches inquiry into likely benefits and risks

• June 11, 2025 11 Jun'25

  NHS IT the big winner in Reeves’ Spending Review

  The chancellor of the exchequer has significantly upped spending on digital and technology initiatives in the current Spending Review period, with the NHS receiving a 50% tech funding increase

• June 11, 2025 11 Jun'25

  Government using national security as ‘smokescreen’ in Apple encryption row

  Senior conservative MP David Davis says the Home Office should disclose how many secret orders it has issued against telecoms and internet companies to Parliament

• June 11, 2025 11 Jun'25

  June Patch Tuesday brings a lighter load for defenders

  Barely 70 vulnerabilities make the cut for Microsoft’s monthly security update, but an RCE flaw in WEBDAV and an EoP issue in Windows SMB Client still warrant close attention

• June 11, 2025 11 Jun'25

  Cyber Bill at risk of becoming a missed opportunity, say MPs

  An APPG report warns that the government’s flagship cyber security legislation is too narrow in its scope and risks missing opportunities to embed resilience at the heart of the British economy

• June 11, 2025 11 Jun'25

  London Tech Week: More funding, fellowships and skills

  The government wants to make the UK the best place for tech and AI, opening pathways for global talent and venture capital funding

• June 10, 2025 10 Jun'25

  UK defence scheme invests in future cyber tech Cheri

  Cambridge-based SCI Semiconductors is awarded DTEP funding to work on the application of defensive Cheri technology

• June 10, 2025 10 Jun'25

  HMRC paid Fujitsu £310m last year, but Post Office supplier’s UK business faces gradual decline

  While victims are made to fight for every penny they are owed, the IT supplier at the centre of the Post Office scandal is handed hundreds of millions of pounds by UK government

• June 09, 2025 09 Jun'25

  Labour commits £17.2m to support Spärck AI scholarships

  The government has put up money to help drive the UK’s expertise in artificial intelligence

• June 09, 2025 09 Jun'25

  Starmer opens London Tech Week with £1bn AI boost

  Prime Minister unveiled plans to boost UK’s high-performance compute capacity 20-fold, along with funding to bolster skills

• June 09, 2025 09 Jun'25

  Government to create online platform for public sector tech buyers

  The National Digital Exchange will be a one-stop shop for public sector tech buying, allowing organisations to rate and review products and gain access to pre-approved tech deals

• June 09, 2025 09 Jun'25

  US lawmakers say UK has ‘gone too far’ by attacking Apple’s encryption

  US politicians are calling for Congress to rewrite the US Cloud Act to prevent the UK issuing orders to require US tech companies to introduce ‘backdoors’ in end-to-end encrypted messaging and storage

• June 06, 2025 06 Jun'25

  UK ICO publishes AI and biometrics strategy

  The UK data regulator has outlined how it will approach the regulation of artificial intelligence and biometric technologies, which will focus in particular on automated decision-making systems and police facial recognition

• June 05, 2025 05 Jun'25

  Whitehall fails to recognise digital procurement challenge, says PAC

  Committee concerned that Government Commercial Function doesn’t understand the scale of reform needed to address long-standing digital procurement issues, including lack of skills and leadership

• June 05, 2025 05 Jun'25

  HMRC phishing breach wholly avoidable, but hard to stop

  A breach at HMRC saw innocent taxpayers tricked into letting scammers impersonate them through simple phishing attacks leading to account takeover. Such attacks are avoidable, but hard to stop

• June 05, 2025 05 Jun'25

  UK’s error-prone eVisa system is ‘anxiety-inducing’

  People experiencing technical errors with the Home Office’s electronic visa system explain the psychological toll of not being able to reliably prove their immigration status in the face of a hostile and unresponsive bureaucracy

• June 04, 2025 04 Jun'25

  Put ROCs before SOCs, Qualys tells public sector

  Putting risk operations before security operations may help government agencies and other public sector bodies better manage the myriad threats they face, and make better decisions for the security of all

• June 04, 2025 04 Jun'25

  NCSC sets out how to build cyber safe cultures

  The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre has published guidance for security teams and leaders on how to foster accessible and appropriate cyber security cultures in their organisations

• June 04, 2025 04 Jun'25

  Investigatory powers: Guidelines for police and spies could also help businesses with AI

  Computer Weekly talks to Muffy Calder, technology advisor to the UK’s investigatory powers commissioner, about privacy, intrusion and artificial intelligence

• June 04, 2025 04 Jun'25

  Microsoft outlines three-pronged European cyber strategy

  Microsoft chair Brad Smith outlines an expansive cyber programme targeting governments across Europe with enhanced threat intelligence and support

• June 04, 2025 04 Jun'25

  European Commission should rescind UK data adequacy

  Civil society organisations have urged the European Commissioner to not renew the UK’s data adequacy, given the country’s growing divergence from European data protection standards

• June 04, 2025 04 Jun'25

  Interview: Manish Jethwa, chief technology officer, Ordnance Survey

  The UK mapping service has moved on a long way from paper maps as it now looks to use artificial intelligence to understand, interpret and derive insights from geographical data

• June 03, 2025 03 Jun'25

  HMRC aims to improve customer service with £1.5bn IT investment

  The department is on the hunt for customer relationship management system and contact centre as a service suppliers, following criticism of its customer service

• June 02, 2025 02 Jun'25

  US cyber agency CISA faces stiff budget cuts

  CISA is one of several US agencies facing drastic budget cuts under the Trump administration

• June 02, 2025 02 Jun'25

  Microsoft Copilot AI saves civil service hours of admin work

  Over a third of Microsoft 365 users who took part in trials across government departments claimed they saved more than half an hour in productivity a day

• June 02, 2025 02 Jun'25

  Cyber and digital get over £1bn to enhance UK’s national security

  The government has set out plans to spend over a billion pounds on digital and cyber warfare capabilities to enhance the UK’s ability to defend itself and fight offensive wars

• June 02, 2025 02 Jun'25

  NPCC calls for better tech investment

  The National Police Chiefs’ Council sets out a series of digital ambitions and asks for £220m per year in the upcoming spending review to scale up science and technology capabilities

• May 29, 2025 29 May'25

  Post Office slammed after deleting social media comments on IT scandal

  Post Office accused of suppressing the views of victims of the Horizon scandal by deleting comments on social media platforms

• May 29, 2025 29 May'25

  Gov.uk Wallet open to public sector bodies

  Government departments can soon begin to add documents to Gov.uk Wallet, as the Government Digital Service publishes guidance for public sector bodies on how to use the smartphone app

• May 28, 2025 28 May'25

  UK biometric surveillance exists in ‘legal grey area’

  The rapid proliferation of ‘biometric mass surveillance technologies’ throughout the UK’s public and private sectors is taking place without legal certainty or adequate safeguards for the public

• May 27, 2025 27 May'25

  Government launches search to link UK to European supercomputers

  As part of Horizon 2020, the UK recently signed up to an EU initiative to support the expansion of high-performance computing for AI

• May 27, 2025 27 May'25

  Armed forces charity steps in to address cyber mental health crisis

  CIISec and military charity PTSD Resolution hope to address a gathering mental health crisis among frontline cyber professionals

• May 27, 2025 27 May'25

  Norway’s autonomous bus moves into the fast lane

  In a small but ambitious project in Stavanger, Norway, autonomous buses are proving they might one day solve a critical problem: the chronic shortage of bus drivers

• May 23, 2025 23 May'25

  Essex Police discloses ‘incoherent’ facial recognition assessment

  An equality impact assessment of Essex Police live facial recognition deployments is plagued by inconsistencies and poor methodology, undermining the force’s claim that its use of the technology will not be discriminatory

• May 23, 2025 23 May'25

  Labour puts Humphrey AI to work for council admin

  A tool built on the government’s Humphrey AI toolset is being piloted by 25 councils to take notes during meetings

• May 23, 2025 23 May'25

  Police Digital Service board director quits several months after CISO departs

  The Police Digital Service has confirmed it’s in the process of recruiting a new CISO, as Companies House documents confirm one of its board members left the organisation earlier this month

• May 22, 2025 22 May'25

  Microsoft raises posse to target dangerous Lumma malware

  Microsoft, along with a consortium of partners, has seized and disrupted a significant part of the Lumma malware-as-a-service network used to steal data and funds

• May 22, 2025 22 May'25

  DSIT makes £5.5m of funding available to new projects

  The government is focusing on easing the regulatory burden that can often hamper the introduction of innovative technologies in the public sector

• May 22, 2025 22 May'25

  HMRC begins escape from Fujitsu’s grip through £500m contract

  HMRC looking for a supplier to support its planned exit from three Fujitsu datacentre contracts

• May 21, 2025 21 May'25

  NCSC: Russia’s Fancy Bear targeting logistics, tech organisations

  The NCSC and its partner agencies have blown the whistle on an extensive campaign of malicious cyber attacks orchestrated by the Russian state Fancy Bear operation

• May 21, 2025 21 May'25

  Fujitsu raked in £80m from HMRC in March alone, despite Post Office scandal

  HM Revenue & Customs described as a UK ‘cash cow’ for the Japanese IT giant at the centre of the Post Office Horizon scandal

• May 21, 2025 21 May'25

  Ransomware attacks dropped by a third last month

  Reported ransomware attacks eased off during April following a dramatic spike in the first quarter of 2025

• May 20, 2025 20 May'25

  Botched Post Office IT projects continue to drain public purse

  Millions more pounds of public money spent by the Post Office as a result of an IT error that exposed the personal details of Horizon victims

• May 20, 2025 20 May'25

  Interview: Driving tech innovation at the BBC

  Computer Weekly speaks to Jatin Aythora, director of BBC Research and Development, about self-belief and learning from different industries

• May 19, 2025 19 May'25

  Chinese cyber spooks lure laid-off US government workers

  A Washington DC-based think tank has published evidence that Chinese intelligence services have been running a network of digital ‘front’ companies targeting laid-off government workers as recruits

• May 19, 2025 19 May'25

  Legal Aid Agency breach may encompass millions of people

  Legal Aid Agency says the data of anybody who applied for legal aid over the past 15 years has been compromised in a cyber attack