News

IT for government and public sector

• May 29, 2024 29 May'24

  Next UK government must be prepared to legislate on AI, say MPs

  The House Science, Innovation and Technology Committee says the next government should be ready to legislate on artificial intelligence to plug any regulatory gaps

• May 29, 2024 29 May'24

  Interview: EU data chief Ulrich Ahle on obstacles to Europe’s digital single market

  EU data scheme Gaia-X is trying to plug the UK into Europe’s planned digital single market as opposition mounts to efforts to extend the reach of Europe’s vast and controversial data laws over global supply chains

• May 28, 2024 28 May'24

  Executive Interview: Why Dell wants to be your one-stop AI shop

  At Dell Technologies World in Las Vegas, artificial intelligence was the talk of the town as Dell staked out an all-encompassing strategy ahead of an anticipated goldrush. Dell’s Nick Brackney explains why the tech giant believes it's onto a winner

• May 28, 2024 28 May'24

  Government appoints investigators to analyse Post Office Capture software used before Horizon

  PC-based accounting software used by subpostmasters in the 1990s will be investigated by forensic specialist Kroll after reports that Post Office workers may have been wrongly prosecuted in the years before Horizon

• May 28, 2024 28 May'24

  Post Office scandal: Met Police investigation set to go national

  The police investigation into Post Office and Fujitsu executives is about to gain the status of a major national investigation – but it could be years before any individuals are charged with crimes or face trial

• May 24, 2024 24 May'24

  Parliamentarians warn of UK election threat from Russia, China and North Korea

  Joint parliamentary security committee chair Margaret Beckett writes to prime minister urging government to prepare for foreign states interfering with 4 July election

• May 24, 2024 24 May'24

  Over 700 wrongful subpostmaster convictions overturned by new legislation

  Parliament has approved a law that will see hundreds of subpostmasters with wrongful convictions exonerated as one of the government’s final acts before the general election

• May 24, 2024 24 May'24

  Paula Vennells boasted about removing Horizon risk reference in Royal Mail flotation prospectus

  A reference to Horizon was removed from Royal Mail prospectus by Paula Vennells in the eleventh hour

• May 24, 2024 24 May'24

  UKtech50 2024: Vote for the most influential person in UK IT

  Our judges have selected the top 50 leaders from a shortlist of more than 400 people – now it’s your chance to tell us who you think is the most influential person in UK technology

• May 23, 2024 23 May'24

  Government was aware of Post Office strategy to fight subpostmasters

  Former CEO Paula Vennells reveals that the government was aware of the controversial Post Office strategies to suppress subpostmasters' campaign for justice

• May 23, 2024 23 May'24

  Northern Ireland police face £750,000 fine after data protection blunder put lives at risks

  Information commissioner John Edwards uses discretion to reduce proposed fine from £5.6m to £750,000

• May 23, 2024 23 May'24

  Third police probe into Post Office scandal under consideration

  The Metropolitan Police Service is looking into investigating potential corporate and individual crimes committed in the Post Office Horizon scandal

• May 22, 2024 22 May'24

  ‘You knew’ – former ally accused Paula Vennells of knowing about Horizon problems

  Former Royal Mail CEO messaged Paula Vennells following the broadcasting of ITV’s dramatisation of the Post Office scandal, questioning what the former Post Office boss knew and removed her support

• May 22, 2024 22 May'24

  AI Seoul Summit: 27 nations and EU to set red lines on AI risk

  The countries will now work together to identify thresholds at which the risks presented by an AI model or system would be unacceptable without safeguards in place, as well as develop interoperable safety testing regimes for the technology

• May 22, 2024 22 May'24

  UK government announces £8.5m in grants for AI safety research

  The funding programme will be directed by the UK’s AI Safety Institute, with grants being used to understand and mitigate the impacts of artificial intelligence, including any systemic risks it presents at the societal level

• May 22, 2024 22 May'24

  G-Cloud 14: Overseas suppliers risk non-compliance as CCS changes stance on UK VAT requirements

  After assuring overseas suppliers multiple times during the G-Cloud clarification period that they did not need a UK VAT number to participate in the framework, government procurement chiefs have now backtracked on this guidance by telling non-UK ...

• May 21, 2024 21 May'24

  AI Seoul Summit: 10 nations and EU recommit to safe inclusive AI

  During the latest AI Summit in South Korea, the participating governments reaffirmed their prior commitments to deepening international cooperation on AI safety, and have agreed to launch an international network of ‘safety institutes’

• May 21, 2024 21 May'24

  AI Seoul Summit: 16 AI firms make voluntary safety commitments

  Prominent artificial intelligence companies from around the world have committed to a set of voluntary AI safety measures, which includes developing continuous risk assessment processes, setting acceptable risk thresholds, and ensuring greater ...

• May 21, 2024 21 May'24

  Parliamentary committee criticises big tech response to election threats

  Parliamentary committee says tech companies ‘regurgitated publicly available content’ and failed to address questions raised by MPs and peers

• May 21, 2024 21 May'24

  CIO interview: Nic Granger, director of corporate and CFO, North Sea Transition Authority

  Spending time with penguins in the Falkland Islands may not seem an obvious background for an IT leader, but it's worked for Nic Granger as she sets out to overhaul the way data is used in the oil and gas sector

• May 21, 2024 21 May'24

  Post Office clique deepened Horizon scandal

  A general counsel annoyed by independent investigators and comms director that bragged about his contacts were part of a Post Office clique with former CEO Paula Vennells

• May 20, 2024 20 May'24

  HMRC underestimates Single Trade Window project complexity, says NAO

  A National Audit Office report on UK border calls on government to have a more realistic approach to digital transformation

• May 20, 2024 20 May'24

  UK AI Safety Institute to open San Francisco branch

  News of the AI Safety Institute’s expansion to the US follows the first public release of its AI safety testing results

• May 20, 2024 20 May'24

  WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange granted appeal

  Two high court judges granted WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange leave to appeal against extradition to the US after defence lawyers argued that the US had failed to give adequate assurances

• May 20, 2024 20 May'24

  Post Office directors went crawling back to Fujitsu when IBM project got complex, inquiry told

  More details emerge about how close IBM came to replacing Fujitsu and its controversial Horizon system at the Post Office

• May 20, 2024 20 May'24

  The fall from grace of ex-priest and Post Office boss Paula Vennells

  As Paula Vennells faces statutory public inquiry into Horizon scandal, Computer Weekly compiles some of its must-read articles about the controversial former Post Office boss

• May 17, 2024 17 May'24

  Why the UK needs to fix its broken IT security market

  Ollie Whitehouse, CTO of GCHQ’s National Cyber Security Centre, says the market for secure software is broken. Are new laws required to make software companies liable for poor security?

• May 17, 2024 17 May'24

  Report highlights disagreement among experts on AI safety

  An interim AI safety report coming out of the Bletchley Declaration shows AI experts are not in agreement over some of the biggest risks

• May 17, 2024 17 May'24

  Post Office CEO Paula Vennells ‘didn’t believe there were miscarriages of justice,’ inquiry told

  As the nation waits for the impending appearance of former Post Office CEO Paula Vennells at the public inquiry, a former colleague reveals her certainty that there were no miscarriages of justice

• May 17, 2024 17 May'24

  Post Office considered asking Computer Weekly to review Horizon IT system

  The Post Office CIO was tasked by directors with sizing up Computer Weekly for the task of reviewing a forensic investigation into Horizon

• May 16, 2024 16 May'24

  Post Office IT boss failed to raise concern over false Horizon statements

  Former Post Office CIO Lesley Sewell failed to raise concern over Post Office’s false stance on Horizon integrity

• May 16, 2024 16 May'24

  HMRC Single Trade Window project hits turbulence

  Less than a year into the programme to create a Single Trade Window as a digital gateway for traders, HMRC has already gone through a formal dispute resolution process with its supplier

• May 16, 2024 16 May'24

  Sunak warned against changing foreign student visa rules

  Business leaders have called on prime minister Rishi Sunak not to be pressured into altering the graduate visa route

• May 16, 2024 16 May'24

  HMRC channel shift to digital ‘too aggressive’, says NAO

  HMRC digital services have not had the anticipated effect on customer service it hoped for, NAO report reveals, as the auditor says the department needs to develop more realistic plans

• May 16, 2024 16 May'24

  Tom Read to bid farewell to GDS

  The Government Digital Service chief is leaving his role, and the civil service as a whole, in June, after three-and-a-half years in charge of the department

• May 15, 2024 15 May'24

  GCHQ to protect politicians and election candidates from cyber attacks

  The National Cyber Security Centre, part of GCHQ, to protect election candidates from hostile state cyber attacks

• May 15, 2024 15 May'24

  Critical SharePoint, Qakbot-linked flaws focus of May Patch Tuesday

  A critical SharePoint vulnerability warrants attention this month, but it is another flaw that seems to be linked to the infamous Qakbot malware that is drawing attention

• May 15, 2024 15 May'24

  WikiLeaks founder’s extradition case labelled ‘institutional corruption’

  Call for Julian Assange to be prosecuted in the US has been condemned as ‘institutional corruption on a judicial level’ with the WikiLeaks founder a ‘political prisoner’

• May 15, 2024 15 May'24

  Government focuses on improving AI security

  Two codes of practice are now available to help developers boost the security of their AI applications

• May 15, 2024 15 May'24

  Comms director at centre of cover-up never thought Post Office were the ‘baddies’

  Head of communications at the Post Office painted a rosy picture of the error-prone Horizon system when challenged

• May 14, 2024 14 May'24

  Scotland’s Post Office scandal victims to be exonerated en masse

  The Scottish parliament will introduce its own legislation to exonerate subpostmasters with convictions based on evidence from Post Office Horizon system

• May 14, 2024 14 May'24

  CyberUK 24: UK insurance industry gets tough on ransomware

  Three of the UK’s largest insurance associations have signed on to a new initiative spearheaded by the NCSC to try to bring down the number of ransomware payments being made

• May 10, 2024 10 May'24

  UK hails first test of quantum aircraft navigation

  The government’s £2.5bn quantum strategy receives a boost with test of quantum technology that gets around GPS jamming

• May 10, 2024 10 May'24

  MHRA launches AI regulatory sandbox

  The Medicines Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) hopes the AI Airlock sandbox will help in improving safe development and use of medical devices

• May 10, 2024 10 May'24

  NAO report highlights tech failings in flagship DWP project

  Lack of tech skills, disconnected agile development and non-compliance with government standards are among the issues identified in report

• May 09, 2024 09 May'24

  Cyber attack victims need to speak up, says ICO

  The Information Commissioner’s Office is urging organisations to be transparent and learn from each other’s mistakes as it reveals most of the cyber attacks it responds to stem from the same core errors

• May 09, 2024 09 May'24

  Wales gets UK’s first national SOC

  The first national security operations centre of its kind in the UK has opened in the south of Wales to safeguard public sector bodies across the country

• May 09, 2024 09 May'24

  Barrister says Post Office lawyers misled him over Horizon cases

  Simon Clarke told public inquiry he believes he was misled by Post Office internal lawyers over Horizon prosecutions

• May 09, 2024 09 May'24

  Fujitsu’s Post Office Horizon admission was ‘bombshell’ amid ‘religious panic’ over reliability

  Barrister Simon Clarke was representing the Post Office when he discovered an expert witness had misled courts in subpostmaster trials

• May 09, 2024 09 May'24

  Government injects £1.8m into space tech innovation

  Funding is being split between nine projects, covering a range of technologies aiming to support new space capabilities in the UK