News

IT for government and public sector

June 10, 2020 10 Jun'20
IBM divests from facial-recognition market

IBM’s CEO writes to US congress about decision to stop using and selling facial-recognition technology, and says we should re-evaluate whether it should be sold to law enforcement agencies
June 10, 2020 10 Jun'20
UK tech professionals feel impact of lockdown easing

Mental health concerns increase, with a possible negative effect on the quality of work, as companies get ready to return to the office, study shows
June 10, 2020 10 Jun'20
CogX 2020: Matt Hancock on tech during Covid-19

Health secretary Matt Hancock says technology companies have been vital in dealing with the pandemic, and praises UK for testing more people “than almost anywhere in the world.”
June 10, 2020 10 Jun'20
CogX 2020: Rethinking technological innovation

Innovation processes and relationships must be fundamentally restructured to bring in more stakeholders, and spread the benefits of technological change as far as possible

June 10, 2020 10 Jun'20
Virtual GP practice accidentally exposes patient video calls

A small number of users of Babylon’s GP at Hand service were briefly able to view other patients’ video GP consultations thanks to a bug in a new software feature
June 10, 2020 10 Jun'20
6G, European internet, censorship: EU Parliament sets out vision for digital services

Research outlines trends for the coming decade and an action plan with some controversial recommendations to inform the decisions of policymakers around the upcoming Digital Services Act
June 09, 2020 09 Jun'20
Covid-19 global co-ordination is off the mark, Tony Blair tells CogX

Former UK prime minister, now head of a global institute that advises governments, tells CogX attendees that global co-ordination to combat Covid-19 is far from where it needs to be
June 09, 2020 09 Jun'20
Government publishes artificial intelligence procurement guidance

A document has been published outlining the challenges for public sector buyers as well as best practices on procuring AI technology
June 09, 2020 09 Jun'20
Select committees to continue with Zoom virtual meetings until September

Although MPs have returned to Parliament, House of Commons select committees will continue with virtual meetings until 17 September
June 05, 2020 05 Jun'20
NHS Covid-19 datastore contracts published under pressure from privacy groups

The government has published the contracts with Palantir, Faculty, Microsoft and Google for the controversial NHS datastore ahead of court proceedings initiated by civil liberties organisation OpenDemocracy

June 05, 2020 05 Jun'20
Police chiefs working with Public Health England on contact-tracing security

Police force representatives are in talks with Public Health England over operational security concerns arising from the NHS Test and Trace coronavirus contact-tracing scheme
June 05, 2020 05 Jun'20
London Tech Week to go ahead through Zoom

London Tech week will go ahead next week, with the tech industry attending through Zoom
June 05, 2020 05 Jun'20
Ministry of Defence forms new cyber security regiment

The 13th Signal Regiment brings together personnel from across the armed forces to provide specialist security services
June 04, 2020 04 Jun'20
Dutch organisations invest heavily in compliance – but in vain

Despite the fact that companies in the Netherlands have invested heavily to comply with GDPR legislation introduced two years ago, 90% of them are still discovering fundamental weaknesses in their IT environment
June 04, 2020 04 Jun'20
Government evades being pinned to a date for online harms legislation

MPs challenge government on online harms bill timetable, but have to settle for “clear assurances” that it will brought to parliament before the end of the session
June 04, 2020 04 Jun'20
OVHcloud brings healthcare-focused private cloud offering to UK market

French infrastructure-as-a-service provider OVHcloud is making its sector-specific portfolio of private cloud and bare metal services available to UK-based healthcare providers
June 04, 2020 04 Jun'20
MPs' investigation into Post Office Horizon IT scandal bares teeth

Select committee chair writes to former Post Office CEO demanding answers over her role in IT scandal
June 03, 2020 03 Jun'20
Security procurement framework goes live for NHS and public sector

Cyber Security Services Framework, developed by NHS Shared Business Services, has formally launched
June 03, 2020 03 Jun'20
CCRC sends 47 subpostmaster miscarriages of justice for appeal, asks for prosecution powers review

The Criminal Cases Review Commission sends 47 more subpostmaster cases to Court of Appeal and asks government to review private prosecution powers
June 02, 2020 02 Jun'20
Government departments could cut payment costs through API deal

The UK government adds fintech to its approved procurement list which promises to cut the costs of receiving payments
June 02, 2020 02 Jun'20
Hull supercomputer helps fight Covid-19

University’s Viper supercomputer team join forces with Sheffield-based HPC specialist in global distributed computing project focused on the coronavirus
June 02, 2020 02 Jun'20
NIS security regulations proving effective, but more work to do

The UK’s NIS cyber security and risk regulations are proving somewhat effective, according to a government report
June 02, 2020 02 Jun'20
Subpostmasters to force scrutiny of government’s role in Post Office IT scandal

The government's role in the Post Office Horizon IT scandal could soon be put under the microscope as subpostmasters take their complaints to the Parliamentary Ombudsman
June 01, 2020 01 Jun'20
Employees must be consulted on technologies monitoring the return to work

Experts say the workforce must be ‘in the room’ and given a meaningful say about technologies introduced to monitor their return to work following the Covid-19 pandemic
June 01, 2020 01 Jun'20
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange misses court hearing due to respiratory problems

The WikiLeaks founder is expected to call 21 witnesses during a three-week extradition hearing in September
June 01, 2020 01 Jun'20
How Saudi Arabia is using cloud to navigate the Covid-19 downturn

Organisations in Saudi Arabia are using cloud computing services to help them navigate challenges caused by the coronavirus pandemic
June 01, 2020 01 Jun'20
UK-Ireland frictionless border tech far from ready, EU Select Committee finds

The government has promised a frictionless UK-Ireland border, but currently technology only has the capacity to mitigate rather than eliminate friction, and the government’s technical advisory group on the border seems to be on hiatus
June 01, 2020 01 Jun'20
Coronavirus: Government under renewed pressure to ramp up support for limited company directors

Chancellor of the Exchequer's announced extensions of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme prompt renewed calls for more tailored financial support for limited companies
June 01, 2020 01 Jun'20
Councils don't have a consistent view of cyber security, says report

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government releases findings around security perceptions of local authorities
May 29, 2020 29 May'20
Test and Trace has not passed data protection impact assessment

Public Health England failed to complete the required impact assessment before launching the Covid-19 Test and Trace programme
May 29, 2020 29 May'20
UK to join Covid-19 High-Performance Computing consortium

UK becomes first country outside the US to join group enabling researchers and scientists to access top supercomputers to help their work on the coronavirus
May 28, 2020 28 May'20
IT contractors hit by delays in Covid-19 furlough scheme payments from umbrella companies

A lack of clarity over how Covid-19-related furlough pay calculations should be totalled up for IT contractors working for umbrella companies has left many facing financial hardship, it is claimed
May 28, 2020 28 May'20
Departments launch 69 services on Gov.uk during coronavirus pandemic

During the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic, government departments have launched 69 online customer facing services on Gov.uk, with another 46 on track to be delivered
May 28, 2020 28 May'20
UK government seeks innovations to tackle space debris

Organisations developing solutions in space surveillance and tracking will be able to bid for a share of a £1m funding pot
May 27, 2020 27 May'20
Revealed: Surveillance camera network that covered Dominic Cummings’ lockdown travel

A network of automatic number plate recognition and local authority traffic cameras could help police track Downing Street chief of staff Dominic Cummings’ journeys to Durham and Barnard Castle during the Covid-19 lockdown
May 27, 2020 27 May'20
Subpostmasters crowdfund for justice in IT scandal

Campaign group calls for public support to help potential victims of Post Office Horizon IT scandal
May 26, 2020 26 May'20
900 more criminal prosecutions of subpostmasters could be unsafe because of IT failures

Post Office re-examines hundreds of prosecutions that could have resulted from faults in Horizon IT system
May 21, 2020 21 May'20
UK government spent over £50m on digital response to Covid-19 pandemic

NAO report outlines public spending on responding to the coronavirus crisis, which also includes a £1.2bn hit from delaying controversial IR35 tax reforms
May 21, 2020 21 May'20
Cheshire deploys digital child health system during lockdown

Commissioning support unit joins up records of children across county into one integrated digital system, despite pandemic challenges
May 21, 2020 21 May'20
Facial-recognition suppliers race to identify hidden faces

The number of companies claiming to have developed facial-recognition tools that can identify masked faces has skyrocketed since the start of the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic
May 21, 2020 21 May'20
Coronavirus: Dutch work on XR technology shows promise in pandemic scenario

Netherlands leads the way in the development of extended reality technology, which could prove its value in a crisis such as Covid-19
May 20, 2020 20 May'20
Government eyes virtual reality projects with new funding

Investment increases in competition aimed at fast-tracking development of innovations arising from the coronavirus crisis
May 20, 2020 20 May'20
Coronavirus: NHSX enlists military innovation hub for Covid-19 app project

Organisations will work together to gather and share coronavirus symptom data from third-party tracker apps
May 20, 2020 20 May'20
Serco exposes contact tracers’ data in email error

Error saw almost 300 coronavirus contact tracers’ email addresses made visible to other recipients of the message
May 19, 2020 19 May'20
Post Office executive who tried to mislead judge in Horizon trial leaves via back door

Angela van den Bogerd leaves position as Post Office director quietly, despite many years of service
May 19, 2020 19 May'20
Scotland calls on tech companies to help build a digital nation

Trade body launches challenge for tech firms to contribute ideas to create a “critical national digital infrastructure” for Scotland
May 19, 2020 19 May'20
Innovate UK seeks ways to transform aviation with technology

Projects to develop new forms of air transportation can get a share of up to £30m in funding from Innovate UK
May 18, 2020 18 May'20
Privacy advocates demand clarity over Covid-19 datastore

Government and NHS face questions about the involvement of private technology companies with coronavirus datastore
May 18, 2020 18 May'20
NHS Scotland begins contact-tracing tech pilot

Three Scottish health boards are trialling coronavirus contact-tracing software which will be rolled out across the country at the end of this month
May 18, 2020 18 May'20
NHS looks for remote monitoring tech

NHSX is seeking suppliers to help scale up remote monitoring across the health service in England, particularly for Covid-19 patients, and will go out to tender shortly