News

IT for government and public sector

• 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