Councils organise local computers for remote schooling schemes
Norfolk, Essex, Greater Manchester and West Midlands among authorities setting up local projects
Ben Goldacre to review research use of health data
Head of Oxford University DataLab and ‘Bad Science’ author to report findings in April
Digitisation will help make census safe says ONS
Statistical agency hopes that three-quarters of responses in England and Wales will be digital...
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National Cyber Security Centre: ‘Entirely possible to build secure tech in an agile way’
The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre has revealed how it built its new IT systems using an agile approach, saying that waterfall “was never going to bring this job in on time”.
HMRC to develop separate identity assurance service to replace Government Gateway
HMRC has said that it will develop its identity assurance solution to replace Government Gateway when it ends in March 2018 – rather than using the government’s flagship GOV.UK Verify.
Government to trial online conviction for fare evasion as part of digital justice reforms
The Ministry of Justice is pushing ahead with plans that will allow people to plead guilty online and immediately pay a standard fine for certain offences.
Expert reaction: Transformation strategy shows promise, but needs cross-Whitehall buy-in
The government transformation strategy provides a good rationale for the next stage of work, but more it needs vocal backing from senior politicians, experts have said.
EXCL: GDS leader Kevin Cunnington: ‘We’re on track to finish Mike’s strategy, this is the next step'
The government has achieved “just about everything” that was in its first digital strategy and now needs a different approach to make bigger savings, the director general of the Government Digital Service has said.
‘Bring IT back in’: Former DWP minister says outsourcing is a fundamental mistake
The minister responsible for overseeing the creation of the Universal Credit programme has said that Whitehall's outsourcing of IT is a “fundamental mistake” and that government needs to work to attract more digital talent.
Whitehall must change its hierarchical workforce mentality and embrace technology, says Reform think tank
The public sector needs to use technology to reform its workforce by disrupting hierarchies, adopting new recruitment processes and automating administrative roles, a think tank has said.
NHS shares patient information with Home Office for immigration enforcement
A government document has revealed the patient information sharing agreements between NHS Digital and the Home Office, while data shows that more than 8,000 requests were made in 2016.
Whitehall’s digital record legacy poses ‘real and immediate risks’ to operations and compliance
Much of the digital information that government has amassed over the past two decades is poorly organised and “almost impossible” to search, a Cabinet Office report has said.
NHS England moots regional-level data collection to support national analytics
Regional NHS bodies could soon be asked to collect patient information to create a ‘data-lake’ for use at a national level, according to an NHS England consultation document.
MPs call for delay to implementation of ‘over-ambitious’ digital tax plans
The government’s timeline for implementing plans to digitise record keeping and reporting of tax is “wholly unrealistic” and should be delayed until at least 2019-20, the House of Commons Treasury Committee has said.
Former Australian CDO Paul Shetler: ‘Governments need to radically upskill their people’
Governments need to stop relying on outsourcing and make sure they have competent public servants who can deal with technology, the former leader of the Australia’s Digital Transformation Office has said.
Civica CEO Wayne Story says company remains in ‘middle tier’ of suppliers as it launches new digital division
Civica is large enough to take on big transformation government projects but small enough to be seen as “part of the team”, chief executive Wayne Story has said at the launch of its dedicated digital division.
GDS wants to boost technical writing skills across Whitehall
Government digital teams need to make more use of technical writers to help technology teams and allow others to concentrate on transformation, a Government Digital Service staffer has said.
Councils are not providing enough information on how to access e-books, survey says
The Socitm Better Connected survey has revealed that more than half of English county councils are not providing a good online service to help people sign up for e-resources.
‘The skill set for any CIO is the same’: Socitm president Geoff Connell on moving from borough to county
Geoff Connell took up his role of CIO at Norfolk County Council in August last year. Rebecca Hill asks him how he found the change from the London Borough of Newham, and finds out what’s on his to-do list.
CGI bags £5m contract to design England’s flood forecasting system
The Environment Agency has awarded a three-year, £5m contract to CGI to design, deliver and run its Future Flood Forecasting System for England.
Whitehall needs to ‘evolve’ its recruitment processes for digital staff
Traditional recruitment methods are often not “proactive or productive enough” to attract the right candidates and need to be revised, a recruitment advisor at the Government Digital Service has said.
NHS to trial online CBT services as part of £67.7m investment in digital mental health
The prime minister Theresa May has announced plans to improve online advice and information on mental health and increase the use of digitally assisted therapies.
Socitm survey: A third of council homepages fail accessibility tests
A third of UK council websites have not passed the first stage of Socitm’s annual test to assess their accessibility to people with disabilities.
GDS updates Notify API
The Government Digital Service has upgraded the public Application Programming Interface for GOV.UK Notify based on the results of user research carried out during its private beta.