News

IT for government and public sector

• December 02, 2019 02 Dec'19

  Private sector warned off delaying IR35 reform prep as Conservative Party promises review

  The Conservative Party has followed in the footsteps of the Liberal Democrats, The Labour Party and the Scottish National Party by committing to a review of the IR35 reforms

• December 02, 2019 02 Dec'19

  UK boards lose digital confidence

  Fewer organisations feel they have the expertise they require, according to a Harvey Nash survey

• November 29, 2019 29 Nov'19

  Labour SME minister back-tracks over claims party will scrap IR35 reforms if it comes to power

  Shadow small business secretary Bill Esterson clarifies comments he made during an event this week that suggested Labour had made halting the roll-out of the IR35 reforms to the private sector policy

• November 28, 2019 28 Nov'19

  Finnish tech firm aims to create scalable general-purpose quantum computer

  University spin-off is attempting to take quantum computing capabilities to multiple business sectors

• November 26, 2019 26 Nov'19

  Peer calls for clear-out of Post Office board after Court of Appeal confirms major court defeat

  Conservative peer championing subpostmasters’ long-running battle with Post Office suggests management clear-out after Court of Appeal rejects appeal bid

• November 26, 2019 26 Nov'19

  Revamped HMRC IR35 status checker tool still lacks key functionality, contractor groups claim

  HMRC releases an updated version of its IR35 tax status checker tool, CEST, to accommodate the onset of the tax avoidance reforms being rolled out to the private sector, but contracting stakeholders claim it still lacks basic functionality

• November 25, 2019 25 Nov'19

  General Election 2019: The Conservatives’ technology policies and digital plans

  With the UK gearing up for its third general election in four years, Computer Weekly outlines the Conservative and Unionist Party’s main technology policies and digital plans, as laid out in its manifesto

• November 25, 2019 25 Nov'19

  University of Leicester dumps SANs and LUNs for Cloudian object storage

  One-to-one mapping between Dell SANs and media servers had passed their sell-by date and caused vulnerabilities for the University of Leicester, which fixed the problems by a move to “stateless” object storage on Cloudian

• November 25, 2019 25 Nov'19

  General Election 2019: Labour’s technology policies and digital plans

  With the UK gearing up for its third General Election in four years, Computer Weekly outlines the Labour Party’s main technology policies and digital plans, as laid out in its manifesto

• November 25, 2019 25 Nov'19

  Conservatives propose national cyber crime force

  Manifesto also says Tories would “empower the police to safely use new technologies like biometrics and artificial intelligence, along with the use of DNA, within a strict legal framework”

• November 22, 2019 22 Nov'19

  Court of Appeal dismisses Post Office application to appeal damning judgment

  The Court of Appeal has rejected a Post Office application to appeal judgments made in the first trial of its multimillion-pound battle with subpostmasters over IT system failures.

• November 21, 2019 21 Nov'19

  Labour pledges review of NCSC in UK security overhaul

  The UK's National Cyber Security Centre may get expanded powers under a Labour government

• November 21, 2019 21 Nov'19

  SMEs prevail in expanded FutureNHS tender

  Health service is looking to procure a larger sharing and collaboration platform for health and social care

• November 21, 2019 21 Nov'19

  Lib Dem election manifesto: Party vows to scrap loan charge and review IR35 private sector reforms

  The Liberal Democrats’ General Election manifesto sees the party pledge to scrap the controversial loan charge policy, and undertake a review of the IR35 private sector reforms

• November 21, 2019 21 Nov'19

  Collaboration is key to rapid adoption of govtech across Europe

  Government technology is spreading across Europe, but policy-makers and senior civil servants are still figuring out best practices

• November 20, 2019 20 Nov'19

  NHSX seeks chief information officer

  Role is the latest in a series of senior positions the digital unit is looking to fill in order to build its leadership

• November 20, 2019 20 Nov'19

  Swedish hospitals suffer IT crashes

  Hospitals in Sweden’s West Götaland region have suffered computer problems because of as-yet unexplained hard drive crashes

• November 20, 2019 20 Nov'19

  Met Police launches £600m IT infrastructure tender

  Force aims to move away from a multi-supplier approach and enable flexibility and savings in technology

• November 20, 2019 20 Nov'19

  Finland’s ministry of transport floats tech-enabled four-day week

  Government department says four-day working week is made possible by technologies such as artificial intelligence

• November 20, 2019 20 Nov'19

  House of Commons seeks IT security chief

  Interviews for the two-year engagement are due to take place in December 2019

• November 19, 2019 19 Nov'19

  Public sector risks downplayed by senior IT leaders

  Sophos reveals a significant cyber security perception gap between senior IT and security leaders in the public sector and their front-line teams

• November 18, 2019 18 Nov'19

  Scottish local government prioritises automation and AI in digital plan

  Use of the technologies will be ramped up as part of the next phase of the Digital Office 2.0 programme

• November 15, 2019 15 Nov'19

  Loan charge under review: The 20-year retroactive tax policy pushing IT contractors to the brink

  Thousands of IT contractors are at risk of financial ruin as HMRC pursues them for tax it claims they owe on work they did up to two decades ago and were reimbursed for via loan remuneration schemes. Computer Weekly investigates

• November 15, 2019 15 Nov'19

  Notorious hackers claim responsibility for Labour DDoS

  Hackers claiming to represent Lizard Squad say they were behind a distributed denial of service attack on the UK’s Labour Party

• November 14, 2019 14 Nov'19

  Home Office Brexit app contains multiple security flaws

  The Home Office’s Brexit app may be putting EU citizens’ personal data at risk

• November 14, 2019 14 Nov'19

  LOTI launches dashboard that maps technology resources of local authorities

  London Office of Technology and Innovation launches dashboard in partnership with Bloomberg Associates to drive savings and identify skills levels

• November 13, 2019 13 Nov'19

  Attack on Labour shows need for DDoS defence but should alarm few

  After being hit by two DDoS attacks in the space of 24 hours, many commentators are convinced the UK’s Labour Party is the victim of foreign interference in the General Election campaign. It probably isn’t

• November 12, 2019 12 Nov'19

  NHS still holds citizen trust on data use

  But the public trust banks more than local or central government bodies when it comes to handling personal information, a new study has found

• November 12, 2019 12 Nov'19

  ‘Robust’ security foils cyber attack on Labour Party

  Labour claims to have been the victim of a cyber attack, but says it is confident no data leaked

• November 11, 2019 11 Nov'19

  G-Cloud 10 fails to generate business for suppliers, study says

  Research firm Tussell’s study into G-Cloud reveals majority of suppliers listed in its report did not earn any revenue in 2018 through the public sector framework

• November 08, 2019 08 Nov'19

  HMCTS researches the future of open justice

  A new report by Policy Lab into the threats and opportunities of technology is aimed to support new approaches to policy-making

• November 06, 2019 06 Nov'19

  General Election affects National Data Strategy

  A series of workshops, including the public’s involvement to guide the plan’s vision, have been postponed

• November 05, 2019 05 Nov'19

  Welsh government to hire chief digital officer

  The £500,000 of annual funding will go towards a leader and a department dedicated to developing digital initiatives

• November 05, 2019 05 Nov'19

  ICO launches data security campaign for UK General Election

  Information commissioner Elizabeth Denham launches campaign to remind the public of their rights when personal data is used for political purposes

• November 04, 2019 04 Nov'19

  Modernisation of justice may leave vulnerable users behind

  A Commons Select Committee report has voiced a number of concerns about the ongoing transformation efforts led by the Ministry of Justice and called for actions such as maintenance of non-digital services

• November 04, 2019 04 Nov'19

  Government allocates £2m to support growth of lawtech

  New government funding unlocked to help break down barriers to the adoption of emerging technologies in the legal sector

• November 04, 2019 04 Nov'19

  IR35 tribunal rules HMRC wrong to pursue ex-DWP IT contractor for £240,000 in unpaid employment tax

  HMRC has vowed to appeal against the outcome of an IR35 tribunal that ruled it should not be pursuing an ex-DWP and Accenture IT contractor for more than £240,000 in unpaid tax as his engagements classify him as self-employed

• November 04, 2019 04 Nov'19

  EU patches 20-year-old open source vulnerability

  Ethical hackers taking part in a bug bounty programme on behalf of the European Union have uncovered a 20-year-old vulnerability

• November 01, 2019 01 Nov'19

  HMRC appoints interim chief digital and information officer

  Jacky Wright's replacement is a financial services veteran who brings expertise in tech-enabled change and payments infrastructure

• October 31, 2019 31 Oct'19

  Government review of cloud-first policy concludes guidance should remain unchanged

  A review into the continued relevance of the UK government’s six-year-old cloud-first policy has concluded its ‘brand recognition’ is too strong for it to be scrapped, according to GDS

• October 31, 2019 31 Oct'19

  UK at the forefront of government AI investment

  Current and anticipated artificial intelligence spending is the highest in Europe despite various challenges around implementation, according to a report by Accenture

• October 31, 2019 31 Oct'19

  JEDI mind tricks: Did White House interference affect the outcome of $10bn US gov cloud contract?

  Microsoft's triumph over Amazon Web Services (AWS) in securing a $10bn cloud contract with the US Department of Defense has led to questions being asked about whether White House pressure changed the course of the procurement

• October 31, 2019 31 Oct'19

  NHSX reports advancements in artificial intelligence

  Latest study showcases the work in artificial intelligence that is ongoing in the NHS as part of its Long-Term Plan

• October 30, 2019 30 Oct'19

  DWP outlines steps to reduce fraud and error

  The Department of Work and Pensions has released the priorities within its single departmental plan, including the new platforms National Debt Service and Counter Fraud and Error Management Service

• October 30, 2019 30 Oct'19

  What will succeed the National Cyber Security Strategy?

  As the National Cyber Security Strategy nears the end of its working life, the government is considering what comes next, and is asking probing questions of its successes and failures

• October 30, 2019 30 Oct'19

  UK gets low score in European e-gov ranking

  Leaders in the region got scores of over 80% while Britain achieved just over 61%, a Capgemini report has found

• October 29, 2019 29 Oct'19

  Reykjavik: An IT ecosystem beyond the ice

  Iceland is a small island between Europe and the US, and that is one of several reasons why it is attracting tech startups to its capital

• October 29, 2019 29 Oct'19

  Post Office IT trial judgement within days

  The judgment in the second trial in a multimillion-pound legal battle over an allegedly faulty IT system at the Post Office is imminent

• October 28, 2019 28 Oct'19

  AWS 'surprised' over losing out on $10bn US JEDI cloud deal to Microsoft

  Microsoft has emerged as the victor in the long-running battle with AWS over who would secure a decade-long cloud contract with the US Department of Defense worth $10bn

• October 28, 2019 28 Oct'19

  UK government announces new funding for robot development

  The £34m package will go towards research around autonomous technologies to improve safety and public trust