“Dysfunctional, damaging and sometimes dangerous”

“Dysfunctional, damaging and sometimes dangerous” That’s how the Public Accounts Committee describes government technology in the press release that accompanies their latest report, “Challenges in

UK Government Platforms | Revisited

The UK Government was a platform pioneer. It was amongst the first to understand the potential of platforms in the design and delivery of public

What can politicians learn from Universal Credit?

The unfortunate saga of Universal Credit is a powerful reminder of the repeated failure to successfully integrate policy making with technology. A failure that comes

The political cost of legacy systems

Passengers arriving at airports across the UK recently encountered irritating delays because of problems with the automatic eGates. One likely cause is the Home Office’s

policy making in the digital age

UK Authority have published my article Rethinking policy making in the digital age. It explores the need for a national digital infrastructure that provides open,

‘Blueshift’ and the evergreen promise of the ‘future’ of work

15 years ago at Microsoft, I proposed a programme called ‘Blueshift’. It was a deliberate provocation, an attempt to move away from rusty soundbites about

remembering government.direct – the first interactive green paper

“Top 5% of all Web sites!” “Networking industry awards!” “Awards for excellence!” No, these accolades aren’t for GOV.UK. They’re for the much earlier 1994 central

payday loans and the missed opportunity?

In our book Digitizing Government: understanding and implementing new digital business models, there’s a table illustrating how often grand announcements have been made around the

The wellsprings of UK digital reform part 2 – separating porcine lip enhancement from transformation

Previously This is the second episode of a mini-series of blogs looking at the origins of the UK government’s digital reform programme since 2010. Part

the inadequate scope of public sector “reform”

In the 1999 book “Reinventing Government”, information is placed at the centre of the government reform model: The rings identify multiple aspects that need to be addressed

the identity / data divide

Proving who someone is online and letting them access their personal data – such as their tax, welfare, pension or medical records – often get

the canary that ceased to be

Yesterday I resigned from the Cabinet Office‘s Privacy and Consumer Advisory Group (PCAG) nearly 6 years after I first became involved, initially as its Chair and more