News

IT for government and public sector

• July 24, 2018 24 Jul'18

  MPs call for inquiry into smart meter roll-out

  Government urged to conduct a review of the roll-out of smart meters for electricity and gas, and to intervene to tackle a number of failures

• July 24, 2018 24 Jul'18

  CIO interview: Miranda Sharp, director of innovation, Ordnance Survey

  Ordnance Survey’s innovation director talks about how the mapping agency is embracing new technologies, working on infrastructure for connected cars, and creating a geospatial framework in Manchester

• July 23, 2018 23 Jul'18

  BDUK has £200m to kick-start rural full-fibre network build

  Government plans to use money from the BDUK superfast broadband programme to drive the roll-out of full-fibre broadband to underserved rural areas

• July 23, 2018 23 Jul'18

  Government spend with SMEs down in 2016/17

  Government figures show direct and indirect spend on small to medium-sized enterprises by government departments in the 2016/17 financial year have fallen

• July 23, 2018 23 Jul'18

  Full-fibre broadband for all to cost £30bn

  The government has released its Future Telecoms Infrastructure Review, setting the stage for the national roll-out of a full-fibre broadband network

• July 20, 2018 20 Jul'18

  Huge Singapore data breach shows need for new approach

  A major data breach in Singapore underlines the need for a new approach to protecting critical data and applications, say security experts

• July 20, 2018 20 Jul'18

  Uptick in UK privacy awareness, says ICO

  The UK’s privacy watchdog, the Information Commissioner’s Office, reports increased public awareness of privacy and information rights issues

• July 20, 2018 20 Jul'18

  Confusion reigns over value of 5G, says report

  An Analysys Mason report commissioned by the Broadband Stakeholder Group has highlighted some of the challenges facing the deployment of 5G mobile networks in the UK

• July 20, 2018 20 Jul'18

  Cisco and UCL to open AI research unit in $100m digital economy boost

  Cisco has extended its ongoing Country Digital Acceleration programme in the UK with a further $100m investment, part of which will go towards a new AI research centre

• July 20, 2018 20 Jul'18

  PAC doubts justice system transformation programme will be a success

  Public Accounts Committee says it’s difficult to see how the government’s “extremely challenging" £1.2bn project to overhaul courts through use of technology “will ever work"

• July 20, 2018 20 Jul'18

  Cloud sales stoke Microsoft’s strong growth

  Microsoft says cloud-based Office products made a huge contribution to sales growth

• July 20, 2018 20 Jul'18

  UK alerted to potential cyber risks of Huawei equipment

  A report has raised concerns about the shortcomings of Huawei engineering processes, which it says could put UK telecommunications networks at risk

• July 20, 2018 20 Jul'18

  Matt Hancock to promise £487m for NHS tech

  In his first speech as health secretary, Matt Hancock will continue to fly the flag for digital

• July 19, 2018 19 Jul'18

  CNI sector lacks cyber security skills, government warned

  The UK’s critical national infrastructure sector is being negatively impacted by the lack of cyber security skills, a report warns

• July 19, 2018 19 Jul'18

  Digital consortium aims to develop digital inclusion project

  A consortium of firms has come together to develop a project involving technology and local government partnerships to promote digital inclusion for those who are not digitally capable

• July 19, 2018 19 Jul'18

  Collaborative alliance to advance UK’s cyber security profession

  Leading UK organisations in cyber security have united to develop a national professional body in the field

• July 19, 2018 19 Jul'18

  Committee proposes new laws for immigration of skilled workers after Brexit

  The Science and Technology Committee has released a report proposing new rules surrounding the immigration of skilled workers once Brexit has come into force

• July 18, 2018 18 Jul'18

  NHS on the hunt for chief data officer

  The NHS CDO will report directly to NHS Digital CEO Sarah Wilkinson, get paid up to £176,750 and be responsible for a budget of around £57m

• July 17, 2018 17 Jul'18

  Nordic CTO interview: Martin Whitlock, Telenor Connexion

  Norwegian telco is growing its global reach through its internet of things business unit

• July 17, 2018 17 Jul'18

  Kcom secures second aggregate HSCN contract

  Network services provider Kcom will supply broadband connectivity over the Health and Social Care Network to 10 health organisations in the north-east of England

• July 17, 2018 17 Jul'18

  Expect jobs equilibrium if government sticks with AI plan

  If the government keeps to its artificial intelligence sector deal, the number of new jobs created through the use of AI and automation will balance the job losses

• July 16, 2018 16 Jul'18

  Russian cyber attacks show need for international rules

  Russian cyber attacks aimed at influencing foreign elections highlight the need for the international community to agree on rules of conduct and punitive consequences

• July 13, 2018 13 Jul'18

  Flexible IT contracts generate savings for HMRC

  HMRC’s annual report and accounts show transformation savings are slightly lower than planned as Brexit work means other projects are put on hold, but it’s making significant savings from smaller and more agile IT contracts

• July 12, 2018 12 Jul'18

  Traders may not be compliant with new customs IT system by end of March 2019

  PAC hearing reveals several issues with getting the Customs Declaration Service ready on time, including that traders probably won’t have enough time to get their systems compatible and compliant with the new IT system

• July 12, 2018 12 Jul'18

  Three-quarters of consumers have interacted with artificial intelligence

  Capgemini survey finds 55% of people prefer a mix of AI and humans when they interact with organisations

• July 11, 2018 11 Jul'18

  Russian startup event more international than ever

  This year’s Startup Village in Moscow was attended by more international companies and investors than ever before

• July 11, 2018 11 Jul'18

  Swedish state-private partnership will use advanced IT to secure cities

  Swedish authorities are working with the private sector to develop geo-fencing technology to protect cities from vehicle-related terrorist attacks

• July 11, 2018 11 Jul'18

  Facebook could face ICO fine of up to £500,000

  Facebook could face the maximum fine provided by the UK’s previous data protection laws for lack of transparency and security issues relating to the harvesting of data, the UK’s privacy watchdog has revealed

• July 10, 2018 10 Jul'18

  Lords urge Brexit negotiators to reach agreement on security

  Time is running out for the UK and EU to agree on a future security relationship and if negotiators fail to find common ground, all stakeholders stand to lose, warns a Lords’ committee

• July 10, 2018 10 Jul'18

  UK falling behind European competition in efforts to produce powerhouse tech companies

  Several European-based tech companies are on the way to competing with major US and Chinese counterparts, although the UK is falling behind in this race

• July 10, 2018 10 Jul'18

  NIC calls for nationwide broadband plan

  The National Infrastructure Commission has called for a national broadband plan to support full-fibre roll-out

• July 10, 2018 10 Jul'18

  Jeremy Wright appointed DCMS secretary of state in Cabinet reshuffle

  Attorney general Jeremy Wright becomes DCMS secretary as Matt Hancock moves to the Department for Health and Social Care where he takes over as health secretary

• July 10, 2018 10 Jul'18

  Singapore to build speech recognition system to speed up emergency response

  Emergency responders in the city-state could be able to react more quickly in future with the help of the world’s first mixed-lingual speech recognition engine, to be developed at a new artificial intelligence speech lab

• July 10, 2018 10 Jul'18

  Analysts question Australia government’s IBM deal

  Industry analysts and experts have called the wisdom of the A$1bn IBM IT deal into question, with one claiming that the federal government should have used a range of suppliers instead

• July 09, 2018 09 Jul'18

  Dutch government IT projects run €1bn over budget

  Dutch government IT projects are costing much more money and taking far longer than expected

• July 09, 2018 09 Jul'18

  Government needs to improve its outsourcing approach

  Parliamentary committee advises government to improve its outsourcing methods in the wake of the collapse of Carillion

• July 06, 2018 06 Jul'18

  European Parliament calls for suspension of Privacy Shield

  The Privacy Shield framework that replaced the Safe Harbour agreement for personal data transfers between the EU and the US is under increased pressure due to alleged non-compliance by US firms

• July 05, 2018 05 Jul'18

  Construction sector gets £420m investment for tech and innovation

  Government has partnered with industry to deliver a Construction Sector Deal, which includes a joint £420m investment for “bytes and mortar smart construction”

• July 05, 2018 05 Jul'18

  UK joins forces with France on artificial intelligence and data

  The UK and France will share expertise on AI and research, work together to improve digital services and collaborate to develop tech talent

• July 05, 2018 05 Jul'18

  Local Digital Declaration sets out how to transform local public services

  The declaration, which sets out five “principles of internet-age local public services”, is backed by £7.5m in government funding to help councils transform services

• July 04, 2018 04 Jul'18

  Annual IPA report shows state of major government IT projects

  None of the 29 government IT projects are given the lowest “red” ranking, but seven projects are rated as “amber/red”, including the Home Office digital borders programme and the NHS e-referral service, meaning successful delivery is in doubt

• July 04, 2018 04 Jul'18

  Slow broadband fuels a post-Brexit storm for rural communities

  Lack of access to reliable broadband and mobile networks threatens rural livelihoods after Brexit, according to a Local Government Association report

• July 04, 2018 04 Jul'18

  Israel accuses Hamas of using spy apps to target soldiers

  Israel has accused Hamas of using apps to hijack soldiers’ phones to spy on them, and UK defence secretary demonstrates how effective that could be

• July 03, 2018 03 Jul'18

  Exiting EU committee cattle-prods government on 'data adequacy'

  House of Commons Select Committee for Exiting the European Union urges the government to start the process to secure a “Data Adequacy Decision” from the EU pronto

• July 03, 2018 03 Jul'18

  NHS data breach caused details of 150,000 patients to be shared

  The NHS has inadvertently shared the confidential data of 150,000 patients over a three-year period due to a coding error in one of the most common GP IT systems

• July 03, 2018 03 Jul'18

  Government welcomes Lords AI report, vaunts industrial strategy

  The government has published its official, supportive response to the House of Lords select committee report on artificial intelligence, published earlier this year

• July 03, 2018 03 Jul'18

  Government launches G-Cloud 10

  The 10th iteration of G-Cloud is now live, with more than 3,500 suppliers awarded a place on the procurement framework

• July 03, 2018 03 Jul'18

  Food Standards Agency pilots blockchain in slaughterhouse

  Distributed ledger technology trialled in cattle slaughterhouse to improve transparency across the food supply chain

• July 02, 2018 02 Jul'18

  Huge potential for use of big data to improve ambulance services, report finds

  King’s College London report says government should explore value of big data, and calls for London ambulance services to partner with TfL to navigate traffic ‘more intelligently’

• July 02, 2018 02 Jul'18

  Department for Work and Pensions uses artificial intelligence to crack down on benefits fraud

  DWP has made several digital strides, including developing AI to track organised benefits fraud, moved more than 100 digital products to “new hosting arrangements” and made savings on technology contracts, according to its annual report