Credit: Crown Copyright/Open Government Licence v3.0

The Government Digital Service spent £4.9m in 2021 on work dedicated to “data and user insights”.

Such work was intended to shed light on the experience of users of GDS products – including both government officials and citizens. Activities included “data science, user research, performance analysis and data engineering”, according to Heather Wheeler, the junior Cabinet Office minister with responsibility for the tech agency, and the wider digital government brief.

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Wheeler added that such initiatives covered a broad range of products and tools overseen by GDS, including the new government-wide login system that is now ready to begin on-boarding departmental services – five of which will go live with the new technology as part of pilot programmes beginning in September.

“The purpose is to guide the development of our products, to ensure that they meet the needs of the user, whether that user be a civil servant or a citizen,” the minister said. “This includes: GOV.UK, the One Login for Government programme, GOV.UK Pay, GOV.UK Notify, and the GOV.UK Design System.”

Wheeler – who recently told PublicTechnology that she was something of “Luddite” when she first took on the digital brief, but has enjoyed getting to grips with tech issues – was answering a written parliamentary question from Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner.