News

IT for government and public sector

• April 20, 2021 20 Apr'21

  Health app myGP adds Covid-19 vaccine passport function

  The new feature is described as the UK’s first NHS-assured Covid-19 certification feature

• April 20, 2021 20 Apr'21

  Government launches plan for smart use of knowledge and innovation

  Strategy sets out how Westminster can harness and achieve better value from £104bn worth of innovation and knowledge assets within central government

• April 19, 2021 19 Apr'21

  UK technology job creation nears two-year peak

  Pace of recruitment accelerates and optimism reaches highest level since 2014, according to KPMG

• April 19, 2021 19 Apr'21

  Tech professionals most likely to see mental health decline due to pandemic

  Struggling to cope with anxiety and new ways of working are among the problems workers in the sector face, study says

• April 18, 2021 18 Apr'21

  Government puts Facebook under pressure to stop end-to-end encryption over child abuse risks

  Facebook faces growing government pressure to abandon its plans to offer users end-to-end encryption to secure the privacy of their messages as the NSPCC raises concerns about child protection

• April 16, 2021 16 Apr'21

  London tech manifesto calls on next mayor to support tech industry

  The London tech manifesto, put together by several tech organisations, calls on the city’s next mayor to support tech companies, increase digital skills investment and tackle the lack of diversity in the sector

• April 16, 2021 16 Apr'21

  Finnish government strengthens country’s IT network security

  Finland’s government has created a new national organisation to help public and private bodies improve network security

• April 16, 2021 16 Apr'21

  Sutton Council trials in-home sensor tech

  The council is deploying sensors in the homes of vulnerable people to be able to detect when they might need help

• April 15, 2021 15 Apr'21

  Dutch accuse UK of ‘damaging confidence’ by disclosing details of EncroChat police collaboration

  The Dutch Public Prosecution Service claims Britain has damaged confidence by disclosing details of an international investigation into the EncroChat encrypted phone network to the courts

• April 15, 2021 15 Apr'21

  Only government standing in the way of fair compensation for subpostmasters

  The UK government is the only block to fair compensation for subpostmasters who were wrongly punished for accounting shortfalls

• April 15, 2021 15 Apr'21

  University of Hertfordshire is latest academic cyber attack victim

  Multiple systems are offline at the University of Hertfordshire following a cyber attack

• April 15, 2021 15 Apr'21

  In-sourcing IT in Wales has provided a positive change, says auditor

  While savings have not been as great as expected, the decision to in-source IT in Welsh government has been a success, according to Audit Wales

• April 14, 2021 14 Apr'21

  Tesco reports online sales surge, advances digital platform

  Retailer announces 77% boost to e-commerce sales, details on Clubcard app uptake and advances in its IT remediation plan

• April 14, 2021 14 Apr'21

  Europe provides growth for TCS despite year floored by pandemic

  Tata Consultancy Services grows its continental European business despite economic slowdown brought by Covid-19 restrictions

• 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 Fujitsu 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