UK government delays digital roadmap again • The Register

The UK authorities has delayed publication of its long-promised digital roadmap, a plan it says may finally assist save as much as £45 billion of taxpayers’ money by modernizing creaking public sector IT.

Chatting with MPs final week, Division for Science, Innovation and Expertise (DSIT) everlasting secretary Emran Mian stated the Authorities Digital and AI Roadmap – meant to enhance information sharing throughout authorities – was due by the tip of final 12 months, however had hit hindrances.

The Home of Commons Public Accounts Committee was listening to proof about utilizing information and analytics to cut back error and fraud within the public sector, which, in line with the Nationwide Audit Workplace (NAO), price taxpayers between £55 billion and £81 billion in 2023-24.

One of many issues the roadmap aimed to sort out was information sharing throughout authorities departments and different public sector our bodies, with the venture presupposed to set out methods to resolve this.

“We had hoped to try this earlier than Christmas – certainly, I feel each officers and ministers stated to Parliament that we hoped to take action earlier than Christmas,” Mian instructed the committee.

“We weren’t in a position to, however we hope to take action very imminently, this month. That roadmap will cowl the complete spectrum of enhancements that we want to make in information and digital. That may put us in a a lot better place to have the ability to run information analytics on prime of, to have the ability to sort out fraud and error. That’s the subsequent a part of the plan.”

The truth is, the plan had been to publish the roadmap in the summertime of final 12 months, in line with the federal government’s Blueprint for Modern Digital Government [PDF]. Revealed in January 2025, it stated the federal government would “develop these concepts right into a Authorities Digital and AI Roadmap alongside the second section of the Spending Assessment, to be revealed in summer season 2025. It will supersede the prevailing 2022 to 2025 roadmap for digital and information, Reworking for a Digital Future.”

The blueprint additionally promised a new package of AI tools it nicknames Humphrey, in homage to the traditional British satirical TV comedy Yes, Minister.

However in a letter to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) in November, Mian admitted it had been delayed and promised it could be accessible in December 2025.

“The roadmap is now attributable to be revealed in December 2025,” he stated. “This enables the inclusion of absolutely costed, possible and funded deliverables, aligning the roadmap straight with the outcomes of the Spending Assessment and departments’ enterprise planning. Moreover, the roadmap will now launch alongside a collection of different key digital and information bulletins, presenting a extra coherent and impactful narrative for the federal government’s digital agenda.”

Think about the little faces of the girls and boys who didn’t get the promised doc of their Christmas stockings. When it comes to the UK’s public funds, there could also be a sure lack of humor, nonetheless.

The Labour authorities faces excessive public debt, struggling public providers, and a political promise to not elevate revenue tax. The administration is one in an extended line to see the attract of IT as the answer to such a good spot.

In a subsequent report, the federal government urged publicly funded providers together with the NHS, native councils, and central authorities are lacking out on a possible £45 billion ($55 billion) in productiveness financial savings by previous or poor use of know-how.

That determine has since come underneath scrutiny, with specialists telling MPs it was attainable to enhance productiveness, however any proposals to cut spending by that quantity could be troublesome to attain with out lowering headcount or capital spending.

Nonetheless, DSIT has announced extra plans to make use of AI brokers within the civil service to chop admin duties, and the Division for Work and Pensions has already launched a procurement for conversational AI throughout its huge cellphone answering service for pensioners and advantages claimants.

Plans for information sharing, information high quality, and legacy techniques all cling off the promised digital roadmap, now twice delayed. Officers will hope the payoffs from all its plans for higher digital authorities should not equally all the time simply past the horizon. ®