Digital secretary indicates government will work with campaigning MPs to make amendments to legislation Credit: StockSnap/Pixabay Senior tech executives found culpable in breaches of new online safety laws could face prison terms, digital secretary Michelle Donelan has announced. In recent week| PublicTechnology
July 2025 Archives| PublicTechnology
Devices are intended to help pupils get to grips with the basics of computer science Credit: f_a_r_e_w_e_l_l/CC BY-SA 2.0 The Scottish Government has announced a new £1.3m fund for primary and secondary schools to purchase computing equipment. Every school in Scotland will receive two pocket-si| PublicTechnology
Firms that breach guidelines could face multimillion-pound fines Credit: Gerd Altmann from Pixabay The government has claimed that new laws designed to increase protection for connected devices will “put a firewall around” smartphones and internet-enabled consumer products including televisions,| PublicTechnology
October 2023 Archives| PublicTechnology
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A new study from the National Audit Office urges department to do more to analyse information on competitive landscape and use levers to ensure agencies are complying with buying rules Public spending watchdog the National Audit Office has highlighted a litany of shortcomings with government proc| PublicTechnology
In the first of a series of exclusive interviews, the head of government’s ‘Digital HQ’ talks to PublicTechnology about the Central Digital and Data Office’s work to unlock £8bn of digital investment, engage with departmental leaders, and deliver definitively great services Credit: CDDO Public| PublicTechnology
Department to develop single internal infrastructure that will replace two incumbent platforms The Cabinet Office is to start work on a £12m project to build a single internal IT system that will, within the next two years, require users across the department to “align with the rest of central go| PublicTechnology
July 2023 Archives| PublicTechnology
Proposals include using technology to link offender records, curbing jail violence by predicting likely perpetrators and equipping all staff with enterprise grade AI assistants by the end of this year The Ministry of Justice has launched an artificial intelligence “action plan” that aims to e| PublicTechnology
While the MoJ is investigating the potential use of automated systems in the criminal justice system, ministers indicate that such tech will need to match the proficiency of manual transcribers Government is “actively exploring” the potential use of artificial intelligence in creating formal| PublicTechnology
Local authority is working with NHS bodies to construct shared infrastructure Credit: Adobe Stock Leeds City Council is seeking a partner to build a “community cloud” infrastructure to allow public-sector organisations across the city to share data and services. The authority has published a con| PublicTechnology
Resellers CDW and Insight chosen to supply council and local CCGs with tech Credit: Lynne Cameron/PA Archive/PA Images Leeds City Council has appointed two IT companies to a four-year framework to supply technology to the authority and clinical commissioning groups across the city. The West York| PublicTechnology
The country’s transformation is expanding into digital marriages and divorce and elections via app. PublicTechnology talks to Oliver Väärtnõu from tech partner Cybernetica to find out about the underpinning architecture. “We have built a digital society and we can show you how.” This invit| PublicTechnology
With a super injunction lifted, the defence secretary John Healey has revealed details of the 2022 breach, while the UK data protection regulator has commented on a ‘deeply regrettable’ incident A Ministry of Defence official accidentally shared the data of more than 18,000 Afghans seeking re| PublicTechnology
The founding leader of GDS, who resigned only halfway into his scheduled term, is one of four posts HMRC is seeking to fill, representing more than half its non-exec line-up HM Revenue and Customs has lost three directors in recent weeks – including former government digital chief Mike Bracke| PublicTechnology
As well as half a billion pounds to improve citizen services and reduce analogue provision, spending review gives tax department an additional £1.6bn to upgrade core computing and data infrastructure HM Revenue and Customs has been given £500m of Spending Review money to improve its IT and on| PublicTechnology
In the same week as a pending significant expansion of staff and duties is revealed, an influential group of MPs has urged the department to ‘prioritise’ upgrades and new tech HM Revenue and Customs must modernise its systems and get ready to embrace new technologies such as artificial intell| PublicTechnology
As PublicTechnology sources criticise addition to boardroom of ministers and directly appointed short-term members, department says appointments adhered to ‘relevant guidance’ and permanent roles will soon be open for applications HM Revenue and Customs will soon launch recruitment for perman| PublicTechnology
The benefits department is currently engaged in delivering a programme of major reform, including bringing together offerings from across government, all of which is underpinned by online tools and services […]| PublicTechnology
The outgoing leader of the foreign intelligence service has revealed the launch of a new ‘virtual front door that harnesses the anonymity’ offered by technology to encourage people to connect […]| PublicTechnology
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government increased its spending on specialist temps by almost £1m last year, but still aims to scale back the need for external support […]| PublicTechnology
Chief executive reveals that the tax department begins a major £1.6bn programme of upgrade work from a position that is less than acceptable and well below what is considered ‘ideal’ […]| PublicTechnology
A minister at Whitehall’s tech department has claimed that this administration is keeping a close track on both the possible upsides and harms that could be caused by digital progress […]| PublicTechnology
A new tech tool, which replaces an Excel spreadsheet, will enable departmental employees to connect with peers from across government and obtain personalised coaching sessions to support their professional development […]| PublicTechnology
Central agency signs agreement for tech giant’s hosting and support services, with the supplier required to provide government with detailed intel on its public sector engagements and group financial performance […]| PublicTechnology
With legal changes soon being implemented by the Home Office, products whose purchase requires age verification are among the key focus areas of government’s dedicated unit focused on digital identity […]| PublicTechnology
As government embarks on 18 months of work to bring the central health service entity into government, a minister has tackled questions about the potential impact on tech and data […]| PublicTechnology
The newly appointed exchequer secretary and chair of the HMRC board told the department’s external stakeholders that he will cooperate with them in delivering new digital services and infrastructure upgrades By the end of this decade, HM Revenue and Customs “will be an agile department, with| PublicTechnology
Tax department launches request for information process seeking input from suppliers that could potential provide a wide range of data and documents, covering official filings, financial reports and ownership details HM Revenue and Customs is seeking to engage with potential suppliers that co| PublicTechnology
Tax agency is inviting feedback on proposed legislative updates that will require businesses to provide contemporaneous income tax information, as well as asking for additional data from the self employed HM Revenue and Customs has launched a consultation process to collect feedback on legal| PublicTechnology
Major programme seeks to ensure compliance with UK GDPR and other legislation The chief executive of HM Revenue and Customs has signed off on plans for future work on a £200m project to improve data-protection across the department. Details of HMRC’s Data Protection Remediation Programme (DPR| PublicTechnology
August 2024 Archives| PublicTechnology
Department’s annual accounts cite examples of beneficial cooperation on implementation of new tools, in addition to work to support the creation of an updated Whitehall vision for AI and tech The Department for Work and Pensions has shed light on recent efforts to collaborate more closely wit| PublicTechnology
Regulator completes investigation into incident in which an individual requested a copy of footage of 48 hours spent in custody, only for the force to discover two hours were missing The Information Commissioner’s Office has hit Greater Manchester Police with a formal reprimand over “serious| PublicTechnology
The UK’s data protection regulator has issued a formal reprimand to the south east force after its rate of compliance with Freedom of Information requirements has fallen to almost 50% Surrey Police has been formally reprimanded over “a significant and worsening backlog” of Freedom of Informat| PublicTechnology
Information commissioner John Edwards discusses the impact of the watchdog’s new approach to working with the public sector – which focuses on improvements, rather than penalties Picture credit: PublicDomainPictures/Pixabay Information can drive everything in our lives: from the provision of p| PublicTechnology
The UK tax agency has issued an early commercial notice outlining its intent to award a major cloud provider a contract lasting until 2036 and covering migration from existing platforms HM Revenue and Customs has announced plans to appoint one of the cloud market’s biggest firms to a decade-l| PublicTechnology
Ministers announce that, within five years, a new digital and data system will be used by police forces across England and Wales to help anticipate the likelihood of violent offences The government has announced a multimillion-pound project to use data and artificial intelligence systems to h| PublicTechnology
Government science and tech department, which now operates as the ‘digital centre’ for the civil service, has created two new senior roles at director general level, with interim appointments made Government’s digital centre has created two new tech-focused roles at director general level, wi| PublicTechnology
The local authority overseeing collaboration between Birmingham, Coventry, Wolverhampton and more is planning to spend tens of millions of pounds on skills initiatives, including a major rollout of tech education All adults in the West Midlands are to be offered training on how to use artific| PublicTechnology
Whitehall organisation wishes to hear from tech suppliers that could offer a range of services covering infrastructure deployed on government premises as well as cloud provision for department and ALBs The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is inviting bids for a near-£300m co| PublicTechnology
Whitehall’s environment department will minimise use of contractors and pursue tech reform in the coming years, with its broad stable of agencies and public bodies a particular area of focus The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has been equipped with hundreds of millions of| PublicTechnology
The Rural Payments Agency, which oversees the delivery of more than 40 support schemes, is looking to deploy new digital systems that use satellite imagery to enable remote compliance monitoring The major project of delivering the UK’s post-Brexit farming and agricultural regime is looking fo| PublicTechnology
Non-departmental body is to extend a major project which has supported the use of data to better understand issues including reoffending, education outcomes, and the impact of alcohol pricing measures UK Research and Innovation has agreed a £168m extension to a ground-breaking data-linking an| PublicTechnology
September 2025 Archives| PublicTechnology
HM Inspectorate of Constabulary says potential of National Crime Agency’s National Data Exploitation Capability ‘remains unfulfilled’ due to outdated and unfit IT, poor access and management of data and under-resourcing The National Crime Agency’s National Data Exploitation Capability (NDEC)| PublicTechnology
Jean Innes will leave the organisation later this year as the AI research charity refocuses on defence and security, following sharp criticism from Peter Kyle and staff complaints to the Charity Commission. The Alan Turing Institute has begun searching for a new head who will enhance its focu| PublicTechnology
As PublicTechnology launches a new hub gathering together a range of content specially focused on the security sector, editor Sam Trendall considers the perpetual balancing act facing cyber professionals Not so long ago, it seemed to be a commonly aired belief that ‘humans are the weakest lin| PublicTechnology
Department for Work and Pensions seeks to recruit personnel for its digital group over next fortnight, including four lead technical architects for solutions and a range of grade 7 posts The Department for Work and Pensions has published a series of job adverts for technologists with closing| PublicTechnology
Gary O'Reilly, HMCTS’s chief technology officer, says they will only use AI tools when they can be implemented safely and will support human decision-making, and will follow principles designed for the justice system HM Courts and Tribunal Service will focus on responsible implementation of a| PublicTechnology
Local authority for West Yorkshire city spends buys wearable tech that can be used by the likes of social workers and teachers with the aim of increasing their understanding and empathy Leeds City Council has invested £60,000 in immersive virtual reality technologies to help public servants b| PublicTechnology
Cabinet discusses digital identity scheme following Pat McFadden's interest in Estonia’s X-Road system, support from Labour backbenchers, and government work to establish digital wallet for documents, including driving licences The government is looking at a compulsory digital identification| PublicTechnology
National Audit Office lacks confidence in the ministry’s estimate of £850m cost of the Afghanistan Response Route scheme, carried out secretly to resettle 7,355 people after leaked data The Ministry of Defence cannot specify exactly what it has spent on the Afghanistan Response Route (ARR) sc| PublicTechnology
London’s most populous borough has indicated a plan to work with a tech provider, which will be awarded a contract of up to four years to implement an online tool The London Borough of Croydon is exploring options for the deployment of new digital system through which to engage with local cit| PublicTechnology
Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency selects existing partner Kainos for four-year contract to deliver new platform for booking driving tests, promising to learn from long waiting times with current system The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) has announced that its new driving test b| PublicTechnology
New technology, which hundred of thousands of women will be invited to help test over the coming months, could improve diagnoses while also lessening demands on radiologists, according to DHSC Hundreds of thousands of women will take part in a major NHS trial of artificial intelligence tools| PublicTechnology
Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting has unveiled proposals to digitise the ‘red book’ children’s health record, as part of wider technological reforms of the NHS a Labour government would undertake The Labour party has unveiled a vision for digitally led NHS reform, powered by “tech entrepr| PublicTechnology
Scottish and UK governments both kick in funding to support programme Credit: Lorenzo Cafaro/Pixabay The Scottish Government has announced it will spend a further £36m to expand its R100 programme to provide rural homes and businesses with faster internet connections. The extension of existin| PublicTechnology
March 2022 Archives| PublicTechnology
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Tax agency reveals pilot programme and agreement with Home Office that enables border records to be used with the aim of helping to detect claimants that have left the UK HM Revenue and Customs has shed light on a data-sharing programme intended to help catch ineligible recipients of Child Be| PublicTechnology
October 2024 Archives| PublicTechnology
The department has trained a machine learning system on thousands of cases to identify and flag characteristics considered as significant indicators of the risk of payment cessation, PublicTechnology can reveal The Department for Work and Pensions has deployed an artificial intelligence tool| PublicTechnology
Under sweeping reforms announced this week by the new Labour administration, Jobcentres and government careers services will be combined, with tech playing an essential role in the newly unified offering Ministers have pledged that major technological transformation of the work of the Departm| PublicTechnology
August 2025 Archives| PublicTechnology
Department agrees new engagement for an initial period of two years, providing continued support for its ID and access tool, but PublicTechnology understands One Login remains in its future plans The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has retained until at least 2027 its exist| PublicTechnology
The UK’s regulator for data protection has announced the results of an investigation which found a lack of appropriate backup systems, as well as some poor practice in record keeping The Information Commissioner’s Office has formally reprimanded South Yorkshire Police after the force deleted| PublicTechnology
Jade Leung, a former leader at the firm behind ChatGPT, has been named as Keir Starmer’s leading voice on artificial intelligence, replacing the architect of government’s AI Opportunities Action Plan The AI Security Institute’s chief technology officer Jade Leung has been appointed as the pri| PublicTechnology
Department appoints AWS specialist to help prepare for upcoming migration to a new provider, but stresses engagement is not focused on a particular vendor and does not portend any preference HM Revenue and Customs has signed a multimillion-pound deal with a cloud consultancy to help shape a £| PublicTechnology
Leading firms have been invited to join civil service tech experts to start work on a prototype of a ‘helper’ that ministers hope could be rolled out to the populace Government has proposed a state-run “AI agent” that citizens could deploy to help with day-to-day administrative tasks. At t| PublicTechnology
Whitehall’s environment department looks to the charity sector for its latest boss, while identifying a candidate with plenty of civil service experience, including various posts in the area of transformation The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has named charity boss Paul K| PublicTechnology
Department alerts tech suppliers to its plans to proceed with early planning and exploratory stages of the delivery of a system that will unite information from a range of sources HM Treasury is proceeding with plans to implement a major new government data platform intended to drive minister| PublicTechnology
Department advertises role as COO of its tech unit, which comes with a wide remit covering overall plans and strategy, as well as oversight of governance, finance, procurement, and communications The Department for Work and Pensions is offering a six-figure salary for an operational leader to| PublicTechnology
May 2023 Archives| PublicTechnology
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Department signs contracts to support experimentation with possible uses of AI and automation tech, including exploring the use of sophisticated tools, and the ethical and operational ramifications of doing so The Home Office is to explore possible uses of Microsoft’s Copilot generative artif| PublicTechnology
Department issues guidance outlining that popular large language model tool should not be used for official business or on departmental devices, but PublicTechnology understands trials are ongoing of in-house options The Department for Work and Pensions has issued guidance outlawing civil ser| PublicTechnology
Central Digital and Data Office releases detailed guidance on the use of tools like ChatGPT, including 10 guiding principles and advice on how to best implement and use the technology Government has published detailed guidelines for how civil servants should use generative artificial intellig| PublicTechnology
May 2025 Archives| PublicTechnology
Benefits department enters into agreement to support upgrades to digital service that underpins initiative launched three years ago to identify claimants to be reviewed for potential overpayment or other error The Department for Work and Pensions has signed a potential £15m deal for a supplie| PublicTechnology
Auditors warn that there is currently ‘no clear plan’ to realise the potential of data to eat into the current tally of up to £80bn lost to fraud each year Departments and their agencies must embark on a concerted drive to employ data analytics to cut down on the public sector’s estimated £55| PublicTechnology
PublicTechnology looks at case studies from a recent National Audit Office investigation into the publicsector’s ongoing efforts to halt billions of pounds in losses through fraud and error Fraud and error in the public sector diverts tens of billions of pounds a year away from service-delive| PublicTechnology
The Treasury Committee chair has suggested that it ‘may no longer be accurate’ to describe the tax agency as non-ministerial, as minister tells MPs of his role to ‘lead change’ HM Revenue and Customs' status as a non-ministerial department "may no longer be accurate" in light of Treasury mini| PublicTechnology
Announcing the new administration’s civil service Plan for Change, Cabinet Office head Pat McFadden outlines an ambition for the institutions of Whitehall to operate more like those of Old Street A major reform agenda set out this week by ministers is intended to help government operate “more| PublicTechnology
The Labour party has assembled a team of big names – including a former permanent secretary and PAC chair – to advise on issues including digital transformation, legacy systems, and legislative change The founder of the Government Digital Service and a former permanent secretary is among a pa| PublicTechnology
The tech consultancy is part of a consortium, also featuring Blavitnik School of Government and New Local, appointed to help government with a ‘team of experienced digital and data practitioners’ The government has kick-started the £100m Public Sector Reform programme and appointed a consort| PublicTechnology
PublicTechnology understands that the department's directors general are working on the rollout of tech programmes that senior leaders believe have ‘a high likelihood of being scalable into the overall business’ The Department for Work and Pensions is to progress its trials of generative arti| PublicTechnology
A newly published report from think tank the Social Market Foundation has recommended a wider AI guidance remit for DSIT, and identified potential huge efficiencies departments could gain via automation Using artificial intelligence to automate and redirect calls could save the DWP and HMRC m| PublicTechnology
The pandemic illustrated the importance of work to improve a service offering support for society’s most vulnerable, product owner Sharron Wise tells PublicTechnology Credit: 3D Animation Production Company from Pixabay The team working on delivering a new digital service for government’s Budgeti| PublicTechnology
After a digital and data revamp, more than half of claims are entirely self-service, product owner Vicky Coatesworth tells PublicTechnology Credit: Adobe Stock Even by government standards, the Get your State Pension service run by the Department for Work and Pensions is a vast and important one.| PublicTechnology
Newly published transparency documents reveal several agencies will provide funding to support scheme to help transform a ‘core national function’ delivered by the same government body for almost 200 years Government has revealed that a major project to modernise the ways in which citizens fo| PublicTechnology
In a country that has long been renowned as one of the world’s leading digital governments, Tarmo Hanga from Estonia’s Information System Authority tells PublicTechnology about the nation's next steps Credit for above and bottom images: Pixabay / Middle image: Mad Ball/CC BY-SA 2.0 Of| PublicTechnology