Digital Government Factsheet 2019

The United Kingdom

Table of Contents

Country Profile 3

Digital Government Highlights 6

Digital Government Political Communications 7

Digital Government Legislation 17

Digital Government Governance 20

Digital Government Infrastructure 27

Digital Government Services for Citizens 34

Digital Government Services for Businesses 45

Country Profile

Basic data

Population: 66 273 576 (2018)

GDP at market prices: 2 393 692.8 million euro

GDP per inhabitant in PPS (Purchasing Power Standard EU 28=100): 105 (2017)

GDP growth rate: 1.4% (2018)

Inflation rate: 1.9% (2019)

Unemployment rate: 4% (2018)

General government gross debt (Percentage of GDP): 86.3% (2018)

General government deficit/surplus (Percentage of GDP): -1.8% (2018)

Area: 247 763 km²

Capital city: London

Official EU language: English

Currency: GBP

Source: Eurostat (last update: 15 March 2019)

Digital Government State of Play

The graph below is the result of the latest eGovernment Benchmark report, which monitors the development of eGovernment in Europe, based on specific indicators. These indicators are clustered within four main top-level benchmarks:

User Centricity – indicates to what extent (information about) a service is provided online and how this is perceived.

Transparency – indicates to what extent governments are transparent regarding: i) their own responsibilities and performance, ii) the process of service delivery and iii) personal data involved.

Cross-Border Mobility – indicates to what extent EU citizens and businesses can use online services in another country.

Key Enablers – indicates the extent to which 5 technical pre-conditions are available online. There are: Electronic Identification (eID), Electronic documents (eDocuments), Authoritative Sources, and Digital Post. Digital Post refers to the possibility that governments communicate electronically-only with citizens or entrepreneurs through e.g. personal mailboxes or other digital mail solutions.

These top-level benchmarks are measured using a life-events (e.g. mystery shopping) approach. Eight life events are included in the overall eGovernment performance score. Four of these life events were measured in 2013, 2015 and 2017 and the other four were measured in 2012, 2014, 2016, and again in 2018. The life events measured in 2017 were Regular business operations, Moving, Owning and driving a car and Starting a small claims procedure. The life events measured in 2018 are Business start-up, Losing and finding a job, Family life and Studying.

Source: eGovernment Benchmark Report 2018 Country Factsheets

Digital Government Highlights

Digital Government Political Communications

Regarding political communications on emerging technologies, the Government Digital Service (GDS) is conducting a new Artificial Intelligence review in collaboration with the Office of Artificial Intelligence. The review will look at how government can use Artificial Intelligence, automation and data in new ways to drive public sector productivity and produce wider economic benefits.

A collaboration between GDS, the Office for National Statistics and the Government Office for Science was established to form the Government Data Science Partnership.

An Innovation Strategy was published in Spring 2019 that focused on the potential of emerging technologies to deliver public sector transformation.

In May 2018, the GDS published the GovTech Catalyst which aimed to support public sector organisations to find innovative solutions to operational service and policy delivery challenges.

Digital Government Legislation

Digital Government Governance

On 19 February 2019, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) announced the creation of NHSX, a joint unit between DHSC, NHS England and NHS Improvement, for digital, data and technology.

Digital Government Infrastructure

In March 2018, the data.gov.uk site was re-designed and the Find open data service was launched. It aimed to help people to find and use open government data and supporting government publishers to maintain data.

In April 2018, the GDS team revised the Open Standards Principles to make it easier for departments to adopt open standards. The updated version of the principles clarified several important points and uses clearer language.

Digital Government Services for Citizens and Businesses

In 2018, HM Revenue & Customs took a major step forward toward the eventual goal of introducing the Making Tax Digital for VAT. This digital service is a key part of the government’s plans to make it easier for individuals and businesses to get their taxes right and stay on top of their financial affairs.

The Government implemented the Set up a business service which aims to register a business online. The setting up depends on the type of business.

Digital Government Political Communications

Specific political communications on digital government

New Government Transformation Strategy

• Transforming Whole Citizen-Facing Services - to continue to improve the experience for citizens, businesses and users within the public sector;
• Full Department Transformation - affecting complete government organisations to deliver policy objectives in a flexible way, improve citizen service across channels and improve efficiency;
• Internal Government Transformation - which might not directly change citizen-facing services, but which is vital for government to collaborate better and deliver digitally-enabled change more effectively.

The aim of this strategy is to transform the relationship between citizens and the state - putting more power in the hands of citizens and being more responsive to their needs. It is structured around five objectives:

• Delivering world-class digital services and transforming the way government operates in a modern and efficient way;
• Growing the right people, skills and culture;
• Building better workplace tools, processes and governance;
• Making better use of data;
• Creating shared platforms to speed up transformation.

The strategy stated clear priorities up to 2020 for each of the five objectives, and in addition includes expectations for government beyond 2020.

The strategy is supported by the Government Digital Service (GDS) which enables and assures government digital initiatives. The GDS’s role is to:

• Set the appropriate challenging standards for government digital technology and support the increased digital capability of government by identifying, curating and sharing best practices.
• Strengthen the digital, data and technology communities across government - setting professional standards and standardising approaches to recruitment, retention, pay and career development.
• Act as a centre of digital expertise (including exploring new ideas and developing prototypes) and make sure this expertise is deployed effectively.
• Build, continually improve and operate products and services that the rest of government can rely on.
• Provide targeted digital, data and technology expertise (from GDS, departments or external sources) to other government organisations as support for critical projects.
• Provide assurance for digital projects through spending controls, service assessments and in collaboration with the Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA).

• Connectivity - Building world-class digital infrastructure for the UK;
• Digital skills and inclusion - Giving everyone access to the digital skills they need;
• The digital sectors - Making the UK the best place to start and grow a digital business;
• The wider economy - Helping every British business become a digital business;
• A safe and secure cyberspace - Making the UK the safest place in the world to live and work online;
• Digital Government - Maintaining the UK Government as a world leader in serving its citizens online;
• Data - Unlocking the power of data in the UK economy and improving public confidence in its use.

The strategy for delivery of the Digital Strategy is via the following pillars:

• Science, research and innovation, where they must become a more innovative economy, and do more to commercialise our world leading science base to deliver growth across the UK;
• Skills, where they must help people and businesses to thrive by ensuring everyone has the basic skills needed in a modern economy; by building a new system of Technical Education to benefit the half the population who do not go to university, boosting STEM skills and numeracy, and raising skill levels in lagging areas;
• Infrastructure, where they must upgrade our performance on digital, energy, and transport infrastructure, and must better align central government infrastructure investment with local growth priorities;
• Supporting businesses to start and grow, where they must ensure that businesses across the UK can access the finance and management skills they need to grow; and create the conditions to enable firms to invest for the long term;
• Procurement policy, where strategic government procurement can drive innovation and enable the development of UK supply chains;
• Trade and inward investment policy, where government policy can help boost productivity and growth across our economy including by increasing competition and helping to bring new ways of doing things to the UK;
• Affordable energy and clean growth, where they need to ensure that they both keep costs down for businesses, and secure the economic benefits of the transition to a low carbon economy;
• Sectoral policies, where they must both build on our areas of competitive advantage, and help new sectors to flourish, in many cases challenging existing institutions and incumbents;
• Spreading growth across the country, whether it is investing in key infrastructure projects to unlock growth, increasing skill levels, or backing local innovation strengths, the Industrial Strategy will create a framework to build on the particular strengths of different places and address factors that hold them back;
• Creating the right institutional framework, in some places and sectors there may be missing institutions which they could create, or existing ones they could strengthen: be they local educational institutions, trade associations or financial networks.

Digital Charter

Strategies and policies in the devolved administrations

The devolved administrations of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have their own particular approaches to eGovernment policy.

Scotland

Scotland’s Digital Future Strategy of 2011 outlined the steps required to ensure Scotland is well placed to take full advantage of all the economic, social and environmental opportunities offered by the digital age.

Four themes were defined:

• Connectivity: Scotland's Digital Future: Infrastructure Action Plan outlined the government's commitment to a world-class, future-proofed infrastructure that will deliver digital connectivity across the whole of Scotland by 2020. So far, over GBP 240 million of public sector funding has been committed to taking forward the Infrastructure Action plan.
• Digital Public Services: Scotland’s Digital Future: Delivery of Public Services Strategy provided a framework into which strategies developed by sectors align NHS Scotland; Local Government; and central government, i.e. Scottish Government its agencies and non-departmental bodies including the police and fire services, universities and colleges. A summary of progress on each of the Sectoral Strategies can be found here.
• Digital Economy: the report Scotland's Digital Future - Supporting the Transition to a World-leading Digital Economy: Emerging Findings April 2013 was published on 7 May 2013. The report explored the public sector's approach to promoting Scotland's digital economy and provided initial outputs from the review of business support programmes. On 22 May 2013, an additional GBP 7 million in funding was announced to take forward the recommendations in the report and complement the resources that are already in place within enterprise and skills agencies.
• Participation: the digital participation strategy was laid out in a National Framework for Local Action.

In 2017, the Scottish Government published a study called Realising Scotland's Full Potential in a Digital World: A Digital Strategy for Scotland. It described plans for ensuring that digitisation is at the heart of everything – delivering inclusive economic growth; reform of public services; preparing children for the workplace of the future; tackling inequalities and empowering communities.

Significant progress has been made since 2011:

• The Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband (DSSB) programme achieved its initial target of delivering access to fibre broadband to 85% of premises in Scotland;
• The Community Broadband Scotland (CBS) has helped extend broadband access to over 1 400 premises;
• The percentage of adults using the internet increased from 73% to 82%;
• Broadband access at home amongst social housing tenants increased by 20%.

The 2017 actions aimed to, in general:

• Support digital transformation across the wider economy;
• Support growth in the digital sector;
• Re-design Scotland's digital public services;
• Enable change and innovation through data;
• Transform the public sector;
• Build a digital government;
• Deliver high quality connectivity across the whole of Scotland;
• Build a digitally-skilled nation;
• Promote diversity in digital;
• Support people and communities through social changes; and
• Promote digital inclusion and participation.

Wales

The Digital Wales Strategy is structured around five fundamental objectives:

• Inclusivity: Digital Wales will contribute to making Wales a more inclusive, sustainable and prosperous society. Making sure everyone can enjoy the benefits of technology is a key part of that.
• Skills: Information and communication technology (ICT) skills will be part of children’s education, and technology will be used to improve teaching methods and learning. Beyond schools, the government will ensure that everyone in Wales can acquire the basic skills and confidence to get online and use digital technologies. The government will also help train people in more specialist skills for industry.
• Economy: Digital Wales will support Welsh companies to network with research departments to create and commercialise new digital technologies. Digital Wales will help more Welsh companies to exploit these developments to innovate, grow and access new markets, especially in the creative industries, ICT and tourism sectors.
• Public services: Digital Wales will make more digital public and government services, to foster an easier access for everyone by increasing their efficiency and convenience. Through effective use of technology, citizens will be able to better exploit these services and to maximise the use of resources.
• Infrastructure: To deliver all the benefits of digital technology, the government set the ambitious goal of ensuring that everyone in Wales would have access to Next Generation Broadband (at least 30Mbps) starting from 2015. At the same time, the government actively worked to improve mobile and wireless coverage across the country.

Northern Ireland

The Digital Northern Ireland 2020 (DNI) initiative stands to reap considerable benefits in terms of both economic and social uplift as a result of the advanced communications capability which has been and continues to be deployed. The initiative will focus on the following categories of opportunity:

• Business opportunities in and across various business sectors;
• Community and social opportunities across a range of areas;
• A number of key strategic projects which if realised would significantly enhance Northern Ireland’s position as a Knowledge Economy;
• Opportunities for FDI by significant players across major business areas, including the ICT and digital technology areas.

The Northern Ireland (NI) Digital Economy Action Plan 2013-2014 identified a number of challenges, as well as specific actions in order to tackle them. These are:

• Connected Digital Economy Catapult: Provide a world-class centre of expertise in the digital economy, to support the rapid commercialisation of cutting-edge technologies with the potential to have a global impact.
• Systems – new digital media business systems: Developing visual effects capabilities and work processes to allow audiences to be reached across multiple platforms.
• Value – frictionless commerce: Making it easier for traders and their customers to establish a relationship online.
• Value – valuing and pricing digital assets: Developing ways to agree value and price.
• Data – uses of environmental data: Enabling the commercial exploitation of the rich UK collection of environmental data to provide practical decision support tools for industry - joint programme with resource efficiency team and shown in both areas.
• Data – establishing clean data supply: Continuation of the LinkedGov project.
• Data – digital technologies for health: Enabling companies to understand what impact they could have to help deliver more efficient and effective health systems and to connect with the providers. They may consider the following areas: early diagnosis, prevention and better treatments.
• Places & people – enterprise and employee information systems: Helping businesses to establish secure, resilient and reliable connections with their staff working remotely.
• Places & people – location-based services: Helping businesses to engage with their customers in their ‘here and now’ context.
• Places & people – local media systems: Developing a marketplace for information and services of local interest.
• IC tomorrow: Developing innovation for small digital businesses through a programme of small business support contests.
• Supporting and developing clusters: Developing innovation for small digital businesses through two Launchpad competitions: Creative North-West and Cyber South-West.

Key enablers

Access to public information

Third Open Government National Action Plan

• The UK being the first G7 country to commit to the Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS) for contracts administered by a central purchasing authority, the Crown Commercial Service. This means that the whole process of awarding public sector contracts – from bidding right through to building – was made public for the first time in 2016;
• Leading the world in creating an open register of beneficial ownership so everyone can see who owns what in Britain. The register went live in 2016;
• The introduction of reusable unique identifiers to the UK’s published government grants data and central procurement data. This represents a step change in how people can monitor how government is spending taxpayers’ money.

The updated version of the third Open Government National Action Plan includes new commitments from each of the devolved administrations: the Northern Ireland Executive, the Scottish Government and the Welsh Government.

eID and Trust Services

Security aspects related to digital government

National Cyber Security Strategy 2016-2021

Internet Safety Strategy

• The introduction of a social media code of practice, transparency reporting and a social media levy;
• Technological solutions to online harms;
• Developing children’s digital literacy;
• Support for parents and carers;
• Adults’ experience of online abuse;
• Young people’s use of online dating websites/applications.

Interconnection of base registries

No political communication was adopted in this field to date.

eProcurement

No political communication was adopted in this field to date.

Domain-specific political communications

Government Digital Inclusion Strategy (December 2014)

The Government Digital Inclusion Strategy set out how government and partners from the public, private and voluntary sectors work together to increase digital inclusion. This means helping people to become capable of using and benefiting from the internet.

In November 2015, the team responsible for this strategy moved to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) from the Cabinet Office’s Government Digital Service, as part of a Machinery of Government change. The team now sits within the Digital Economy Unit. Following the team’s move, the focus has slightly shifted from Digital Inclusion to Digital Engagement. This reflects a reframing of the policy as primarily a motivational engagement issue.

The Digital Engagement Team has been working to develop new delivery priorities and work areas. The Council will replace the current governance structure of the Sub-Group (to represent government departments) and Delivery Board (to represent non-government organisations), combining members from public, private and voluntary sectors and chaired by the Minister for Culture and Digital Economy. The Council will oversee a number of tasks and groups that will tackle various key issues for digital engagement. Areas for focus are still under development but might involve targeted work with particular customer groups or wider work to support and encourage people to engage digitally.

The 2014 actions in the Digital Inclusion strategy were about addressing the barriers that have stopped people going online until now and backing initiatives that will make things better. Key progress to date is listed below:

• An Exemplar Services and Identity Assurance policy paper has been developed by the Government Digital Service. This looks to gauge the level of difficulty of a selection of online tasks that would require digital skills to complete.
• The UK Government through BEIS has been involved in providing support for basic digital skills since 2010, with some GBP 36 million provided to help over 1.5 million individuals gain the basic digital skills needed to allow them to access employment and education opportunities and the wider benefits of being digital.
• Civil Service Learning (CSL) has worked to improve the digital capabilities of civil servants: implemented online digital learning resources free on CSL website, publicised the Digital Friends initiative via the CSL website, and looked to set up a task and finish group with cross civil service representation to populate a renewed digital curriculum.
• Departments have worked hard to ensure their staff have the correct digital capabilities. Across government departments, digital weeks/fortnights have been introduced, along with digital ambassadors and Digital Friends initiatives.
• To date, 91 organisations have signed up to the Digital Inclusion Charter and collaborate with government to deliver the Digital Inclusion Strategy. The Digital Inclusion team has worked with these stakeholders to develop products such as the cross-sector Digital Inclusion Outcomes Framework and initiatives like Digital Friends which promotes informal sharing of basic digital skills. The Digital Engagement team has a coordination role in facilitating multi-sector partnerships. The programme of work is continuously evolving. Departments have been partnering with various organisations to deliver outcomes. DWP, for example, has worked with Barclays Digital Eagles and EE Techy Tea Parties. With government coordination, BT and Barclays have partnered to provide free Wi-Fi to over 70 libraries and community centres.
• Departments have been partnering with various organisations to deliver outcomes. DWP, for example, has worked with Barclays Digital Eagles and EE Techy Tea Parties. Outside government, BT and Barclays have partnered to provide free Wi-Fi to libraries and community centres.
• The definition of ‘basic online skills’ used for 2014 data (the ability to: send and receive emails, use a search engine, browse the internet, and fill out an online application form) has now been revised, re-termed ‘basic digital skills’ and an updated set of measures has been developed. This broader definition of basic digital skills includes five tasks: managing information, communicating, transacting, problem-solving and creating.
• Work has been completed by departments to support SMEs in developing digital skills and knowledge. The ‘Small Business Digital Capability Programme’ was established to help increase digital skills amongst businesses by supporting them to take action and do more online. BEIS published an evidence review of digital support available - ‘Digital Capabilities in SMEs’ - to provide information on types of businesses who are and are not using technologies and the reasons why; the level of eCommerce among SMEs and plans for engaging with digital technology in the future.
• Government is committed to supporting voluntary and community groups to address their organisational needs. For example, it is currently running a GBP 20 million fund to support small to medium sized charities to deliver change and secure and enhance their services. Applicants have been supported to lead the development of change plans and that haven't specified area of focus. However, many organisations are expected to focus on addressing capability needs such as digital.
• Government is also working to increase cross sector volunteering, by encouraging more businesses to allow their staff to volunteer. This will allow charities to access a wide range of professional skills to build their capabilities. Digital is an area that has significant potential, with a number of excellent cross sector partnerships already underway.
• A ‘Digital Inclusion Outcomes Framework’ has been developed by the Digital Inclusion Research Working Group. It is a single, flexible template for benchmarking and tracking digital inclusion in the UK and evaluating digital inclusion activities locally. It aims to evidence the wider economic, health and social benefits of digital inclusion.

Interoperability

The Digital Service Standard and Technology Code of Practice

The Technology Code of Practice and the Digital Service Standard state that understanding user needs is a core requirement of building and running any government digital service.

They state that open standards should be used to increase compatibility with all stakeholders and give users a more consistent experience when using government services online. They also state that using open standards will help service providers becoming locked in to a specific piece of technology or supplier.

The Government Digital Service assures that open standards are used wherever possible through service assessments and the spend controls process.

The Service Standard requires all services to thoroughly “evaluate tools and systems”. Service teams are asked to assess and choose the appropriate technology to meet user and organisation needs. This is assessed in a formal service assessment at alpha, beta and before going live. For example, for a live assessment, service teams will be asked to:

• describe the tech stack changes they made during beta and why
• describe the development toolchain changes they made during beta and why
• explain how they’re continuing to get value for money from the systems they chose and bought at beta
• explain or demonstrate how they’ll check if the service is healthy
• explain the support arrangements that they’ve set up for live
• explain any decisions they’ve outsourced and why they chose to do this

All government documents should be published in an open format (ODF or HTML5) to ensure that proprietary software is not needed to interact with government. All websites must be tested in 11 popular web browsers.

Emerging technologies

Artificial Intelligence review

In 2017, the United Kingdom began conducting a new Artificial Intelligence (AI) review led by GDS, in partnership with the Office of Artificial Intelligence, to look at how government could use artificial intelligence, automation and data in new ways to drive public sector productivity and produce economic benefits. The review included technology background, a summary of opportunities, the challenges for using AI in transport, and recommendations as to how government could support AI in transport.

The Government Data Science Partnership

The Government Data Science Partnership is a collaboration between the Government Digital Service (GDS), the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and the Government Office for Science (Cabinet Office). It was formed to help government realise the potential of data science and to support the development of skills and tools to kickstart greater take-up across departments and agencies (including the Data Science Accelerator).

Data Science Accelerator Programme

Innovation Strategy

GovTech Catalyst

The GovTech Catalyst supports private-sector companies, not-for-profits and social enterprises of all sizes to develop and trial these technologies. It is an easy way to help them work directly with government and public bodies and means the public-sector partners can quickly and efficiently test them and help make them available to buy across the whole public sector.

GovTech expects to launch a total of 15 competitions to solve public-sector challenges over three rounds.

Digital Government Governance

National

Policy

Cabinet Office

The Cabinet Office holds overall responsibility for the government's efficiency and reform agenda, with the overarching purpose to improve government function. eGovernment resides in the Cabinet Office under the political responsibility of the Minister for the Cabinet Office. The Minister for Implementation in the Cabinet Office is responsible for eGovernment.

Government Digital Service

The Government Digital Service was established in response to Martha Lane Fox’s report, ‘Directgov 2010 and beyond: revolution not evolution’, as the central team in Cabinet Office in control of the overall user experience across all digital channels. Responsibilities of the GDS include:

• Running the GOV.UK website – the best place to find government services and information;
• Working with the rest of government to make public services simpler and better;
• Building cross-government platforms like GOV.UK Verify – a way to confirm users are who they say they are;
• Working to ensure government data is good data and more usable for all;
• Helping departments make better-informed decisions when they need to buy technology;
• Helping departments provide their staff with better value technology that is more of a tool and less of a barrier.

Coordination

NHSX a joint organisation for digital, data and technology

On 19 February 2019, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) announced the creation of NHSX, a joint unit between DHSC, NHS England and NHS Improvement. It is tasked with driving forward digital transformation and delivery across the health service. It will be similar to the creation of GDS, bringing together all the levers of policy, implementation and change for health for the first time.

NHSX will be working closely with GDS and other central government functions to learn from what they have done and ensure there is continued alignment with the Digital, Data and Technology Profession across government.

GDS will be able to assist NHSX in developing guidance and standards in line with the Digital Service Standard and the Technology Code of Practice, and for any technical advice in areas such as common platforms and components (e.g. Pay and Notify), capability and skills, emerging technology, spend controls, and procurement.

Implementation

Technology Leaders Network

The Technology Leaders Network was established in October 2013 to lead technology across Government, ensuring that the government is equipped with the right technology to deliver great digital services.

The network is run by the Government Digital Service and is made up of a Departmental Technology Leader from each main government department, plus Technology Leaders from each of the Devolved Administrations. Technology Leaders and Digital Leaders are expected to work closely together.

Digital Leaders Network

The Digital Leaders Network was established in early 2012 to drive forward the digital agenda across Government. The Network is run by the Government Digital Service and is made up of a departmental Digital Leader from each main government department, plus Digital Leaders from each of the Devolved Administrations. Technology Leaders and Digital leaders are expected to work closely together.

Data Leaders Network

The Data Leaders Network was established in 2015 to ensure that departments’ approach to the use and management of data properly enables the delivery of government policy and operational objectives. The Data Leaders Network meets monthly.

Support

No responsible organisations were reported to date.

Base registry coordination

Company Registry

The company registry administered by Companies House should be the single, authoritative place to find data directly related to a limited company such as the date it was formed and the date it was dissolved and a link to the registered office.

Registry Design Authority

The Registry Design Authority is the body in charge to ensure the realisation of an interconnected environment between registries. It became necessary to incorporate this idea into the initial phase of designing the registry. As a part of Government Digital Services (GDS), the Registry Design Authority is charged with guaranteeing that registries accurately reflect the interconnectedness of government data. In doing so, the Authority has to determine which registries get built, which implies also definition of where the new registry will be placed within the linked ecosystem of registries, establishing whether the registry data constitutes a ‘minimum viable dataset’ and ensuring that data kept is accurate and up-to-date so that it is considered good enough to build services, as well as determining which part of government is best placed to run the new registry.

Registry of Registries

Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

Department of Transport

The Vehicle Registry belongs to the Department of Transport and handles vehicles data.

Revenue Department

The Tax Registry belongs to the Revenue Department and handles Tax data. The registry governance is mostly carried out through Chief Registrars, who are the heads of the particular registries, as well as agencies in charge of maintaining it. The Tax Registry, which is maintained by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, is divided into four operational groups: Personal tax, Benefits and Credits, Business tax and Enforcement and Compliance.

Audit

National Audit Office (NAO)

The NAO is an independent body in charge of scrutinising public spending on behalf of Parliament. It audits the accounts of all government departments and agencies, as well as a wide range of other public bodies, and reports to Parliament on the economy, efficiency and effectiveness with which government bodies employ public money to perform their duties and provide services. Over the past years, the NAO has published several reports related to eGovernment or to departmental ICT projects. Government spending, including eGovernment, is also inspected by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the House of Commons. As with the NAO, the PAC has published several reports in recent years related to eGovernment, or specific IT projects.

Office for Budget Responsibility

The Office for Budget Responsibility was formed in May 2010 to carry out an independent assessment of the public finances and the economy for each pre-budget and budget report. It has four main roles: to produce forecasts for the economy and public finances; to judge progress towards the government’s fiscal targets; to assess the long-term sustainability of the public finances; and, to scrutinise the Treasury’s costing of budget measures.

Data Protection

The Information Commissioner's Office

The Information Commissioner is an independent supervisory authority in charge of enforcing and overseeing legislation in data protection/privacy and freedom of information. The Commissioner has a range of duties, including the promotion of good information handling and the encouragement of codes of practice for data controllers regarding the collection and processing of personal data. The Information Commissioner directly reports to the parliament. Three regional offices were established in 2003 as a direct response to the devolution process in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

Subnational (federal, regional and local)

Policy

Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government (CLG)

The MHCLG is in charge of regional and local eGovernment policies. It promotes community cohesion and equality, as well as the responsibility for housing, urban regeneration, planning and local government.

Public Service Leadership Group - Wales

The Public Service Leadership Group provides leadership for collaboration, driving the pace of improvement in services for Welsh citizens. Chaired by the Minister for Local Government and Communities, the group focuses on ways to improve efficiency and stimulate innovation across public services.

Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) - Wales

The OCIO is responsible for leading and co-ordinating the strategy and design for the use of information technology across the public sector. It also manages IT quality assurance and governance.

Delivery and Innovation Division (DID) – Northern Ireland

The Delivery and Innovation Division in the Department of Finance and Personnel provides a range of specialist business services to Northern Ireland's civil service, which include eGovernment policy, strategic programmes, business consultancy and ICT shared services. DID is an amalgamation of the former eGovernment Unit, Business Development Service and Public Service Improvement Unit. The Division also offers customer-facing telephony and online services to the citizens of Northern Ireland.

Coordination

Ministry for Housing Communities and Local Government (CLG)

The MHCLG is tasked with coordinating local eGovernment efforts. Among the goals promoted through eGovernance is decentralisation, local government transparency and the promotion of the Capital and Assets Pathfinder Programme.

Implementation

Local Councils

Local Councils are responsible for the implementation of eGovernment projects within the framework of their competences, including crime, education, employment, citizen rights, health and tax benefits.

Support

Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG)

Formerly known as Department for Communities and Local Government (CLG), the renamed Ministry intends to give councils broader powers to serve their communities and improve local areas. Support is being given on how best to take this forward.

Local Government Improvement and Development

Local Government Improvement and Development supports improvement and innovation in local government. It works by supporting councils in developing good practice and partnerships, through networks, online communities of practice and web resources.

Society of IT Management (SOCITM)

SOCITM is the professional association for ICT managers working in and for the public sector. SOCITM offers networking and peer support, professional development, and access to research and consultancy on a wide range of policy and technology issues. It is a significant provider of ICT and eGovernment support to local authorities.

Local Government Association (LGA)

The LGA represents all local authorities in England and Wales. It supports local authorities’ efforts to meet the challenges set, to deliver responsive services to their communities and places significant emphasis on the role of eGovernment in delivering this vision.

Customer First - Scotland

At local government level, the 'Customer First' programme delivers a number of services that support the Scottish Government. Managed by the Scottish Government and Scottish local authorities, it aims to deliver enhanced public services by re-designing them around customers' needs.

Base registry coordination

Register register

Audit

Local audit framework (replacing the Audit Commission)

Following the closure of the Audit Commission, a new local audit framework came into effect from 1 April 2015. The Audit Commission was replaced by Public Sector Audit Appointments Ltd, National Audit Office, Financial Reporting Council and Cabinet Office. More information about the transfer of functions of the Audit Commission is available here.

Prior to April 2015, the Audit Commission was appointed for this function as a public corporation set up in 1983 to protect the public purse. The Commission was appointing auditors to councils and other local public services in England and overseeing their work. It was also offering public bodies help to manage financial challenges by provision of authoritative, unbiased, evidence-based analysis and advice. The Commission also ran the National Fraud Initiative (now assumed by the Cabinet Office), which conducts data matching exercises to assist in the prevention and detection of fraud.

Data Protection

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018: All departments and organisations are responsible for their own implementation of the act.

Digital Government Infrastructure

Portals

Government Gateway

The Government Gateway is the website used to register for online government services, both at the national and local level. Services on the Government Gateway are gradually being moved to replacement systems. Services on the Government Gateway are gradually being moved to replacement systems.

Data.gov.uk

Digital Marketplace

The Digital Marketplace is the single place that all public sector organisations can use to find cloud-based services, specialists who can work on digital projects and physical data centre space. Total sales have reached GBP 836 million in three years and are continuing to grow. Of this total, GBP 406 million, 50% by value and 60% by volume have been with SMEs.

They will continue this approach to expand the range of digital and technology products and services available in the Digital Marketplace. Their aim is to grow the Digital Marketplace, so it is the one place to go to buy products and services from a wide range of suppliers of all sizes, to help the public sector design and build great user-focussed public services.

Currently, over two million people have created a Verify account to perform over six million secure transactions with government.

Performance Platform

The Performance Platform collects and visualises performance data about government services.

'Excellence Gateway' portal

The 'Excellence Gateway' is a complete national online service for practitioners at all levels in the learning and skills sector in England. It provides practical help for improving daily work and aims at promoting innovations in teaching and learning. Furthermore, this portal enables practitioners to share both professional knowledge, as well as examples of effective practice with other users.

Networks

Public Services Network (PSN)

The Public Services Network (PSN) is the government's high-performance network, which helps public sector organisations work together, reduce duplication and share resources. It provides a single, more capable and open network, which enables government to safely share services and collaborate in more efficient and effective ways. PSN currently connects some 600 organisations across government, including central government departments and every local authority and council across England, Scotland and Wales.

PSN connects to the NHS N3 network and replaces a number of legacy government networks including the Government Secure Intranet (GSi) family, the Criminal Justice Extranet (CJX) and the Police National Network (PNN). Customers can buy PSN and other network services from a range of qualifying providers on the Network Services Framework.

Since responsibility for PSN moved to GDS the team has been working on ways to make things simpler and clearer for both customers and suppliers in the PSN community. The team is currently testing a new compliance process, developed with the PSN community, which will maintain PSN’s security while making it easier for users to exploit the commercial, strategic and operational advantages of a secure, resilient, multi-supplier network. Additionally, the team is looking at ways of ensuring information can seamlessly travel from one end of PSN to the other and simplifying connectivity, which will ensure everybody who regularly uses public sector data can communicate and work together. This includes schools, doctors’ surgeries, pharmacies, emergency services, hospitals and charities large and small.

Government Secure Intranet (GSi)

The GSi are a legacy family of networks comprised of the Government Secure Intranet (GSI), the Government Connect Secure Extranet (GCSx) and the Government Secure Extranet (GSX). These networks provide a secure and reliable connection to the Internet, file transfer and search facilities, directory services, web publishing and email both within the GSi community and over the Internet.

These networks were offered by the Crown Commercial Service (formerly the Government Procurement Service and before that 'Buying Solutions') and delivered through a partnership with Vodafone (originally Cable and Wireless) under the GSi Framework (2008 to 2011) and latterly the GSi Convergence Framework (GCF) (August 2011 to August 2015). Customers used the GCF Framework to transition from their GSi network to the Public Services Network (PSN), and chose from a range of PSN service providers in the process. Beyond August 2015, GCF customers continue to consume some core services through the GCF framework for the duration of their individual contracts.

Data Exchange

Find Open Data

Open Standards Board

Performance Platform

Standards Hub website – Open standards

'GovTalk' website – eGovernment policies and standards

Technology code of practice (policy and guidance) is available on the GovTalk website.

For projects to proceed they must meet the elements described in the technology code of practice, part of the Service Design Manual. The code of practice includes instructions on open data, open standards, cloud services, networks, and hosting. It also provides links to government platforms for publishing, identity verification, performance monitoring and procurement.

Open Document Format (ODF)

The Open Document Format standards set out the document file formats that are expected to be used across all government bodies. Government will begin using open formats that will ensure that citizens and people working in government will be able to use the applications that best meet their needs when they are viewing or working on documents together.

Once departments have adopted these open standards:

• Citizens, businesses and voluntary organisations will no longer need specialist software to open or work with government documents;
• People working in government will be able to share and work with documents in the same format, reducing problems when they move between formats; and
• Government organisations will be able to choose the most suitable and cost-effective applications, knowing their documents will work for people inside and outside of government.

The selected standards, which are compatible with commonly used document applications, are:

• PDF/A or HTML for viewing government documents; and
• Open Document Format (ODF) for sharing or collaborating on government documents.

Government Service Design Manual

The Government Service Manual aims to help government teams create and run great digital services that meet the Digital Service Standard. The Digital Service Standard is a set of 18 criteria used to check whether a service is good enough for public use.

eID and Trust Services

Government Gateway can also be used for authentication for some online services, particularly by businesses.

Global system for checking the fingerprints of visa applicants

Employee Authentication Service (EAS) project

EAS is a cross-government project which enables authorised public employees to access sensitive information safely and securely. It is an example of how the re-use of existing technology can contribute to significant cost savings to central and local government.

eProcurement

Digital Marketplace

In 2016/17, frameworks available through the Digital Marketplace contributed towards CCS delivering GBP 725 million in savings, including commercial benefits for taxpayers. In 2015/16, Digital Marketplace contributed to GBP 521 million in savings.

Through the Digital Marketplace, launched in November 2014, GDS and the CCS are transforming the way the public sector buys digital and technology services, making the whole process simpler, clearer and faster.

The service has given small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) better access to the public sector and has helped drive supplier competition. This in turn helps government get the best deal when purchasing services. So far, 46% of total sales by value (GBP 1.35 for every GBP 3 spent) and 69% by volume on the Digital Marketplace’s G-Cloud cloud hosting framework have been awarded to SMEs.

The Digital Marketplace has a symbiotic relationship with the GDS Spend Controls Team, ensuring the correct approach to market is used, and thereby saving departments time and money.

Total sales through the Digital Marketplace have grown substantially year on year and, at the time of writing, have reached GBP 4.2bn in total. In the past three years alone, spending has increased from GBP 658.25m in 2015/16, to GBP 1.02bn in 2016/17, and to GBP 1.38bn in 2017/18.

Crown Commercial Service

Value Wales platform

The Wales Procurement Policy Statement sets out the procurement practices and actions required of all public sector organisations in Wales. In this regard, Value Wales helps the Welsh public sector realise improved value for money through ‘smarter procurement’ in the following manner: increases in savings through collaboration, improvements of process efficiency especially through use of technology, protection of the economy by encouraging smaller and more local suppliers and seeking re-investment in local communities and by building of procurement capability.

The platform includes a comprehensive suite of eProcurement tools and associated support services such as Value Wales - ePurchasing and Value Wales – Procurement Route Planner. The service is delivered in a modular format to meet the needs of the Welsh public sector and their suppliers.

Scotland eCommerce

The effective use of technology is at the heart of the procurement reform and Scottish Procurement is leading a number of core initiatives to deliver value for money and to contribute to the Scottish economy.

The Scottish Government’s eCommerce Shared Service provides possible solutions which assist both the public and private sector streamline the way business is conducted. The tools include Public Contracts Scotland (PCS) the national advertising portal for all contracting opportunities across the Scottish public sector.

Public Contracts Scotland Tenders provide buying organisations with a set of web-based collaborative procurement tools including eTendering and eEvaluation. The standard pre-qualification questionnaire assists buyers to reduce the inconsistency in supplier selection.

eInvoicing

No particular infrastructure in this field was reported to date.

ePayment

Knowledge Management

Go On service

The Go On service converts increasing numbers of people into confident Internet users, including the disadvantaged and the digitally excluded. More importantly, its guidance modules have enabled people to explore the benefits of the Web, whether to save money, find a job or use public services.

Criminal Justice eSystems

Justice is served by a modern IT infrastructure and case management system. Information on the administration and regulation of the justice system in England and Wales can be found on the justice.gov.uk website, which is aimed at those working within and reliant on information produced by a number of different bodies belonging to the judicial system. The Criminal Justice Secure eMail, serves over 400 000 users and 9 000 organisations and departments, processing around 3 000 000 secure messages each month.

A dedicated 'Guidance' section of justice.gov.uk for members of the judiciary, legal practitioners and other interested professionals covers a wide range of policy areas, including freedom of information, elections and human rights.

The HM Revenue & Customs

Cross-border platforms

No particular infrastructure in this field was reported to date.

Base Registries

Modelling registry data

Digital Government Services for Citizens

The information in this section presents an overview of the basic public services provided to the citizens. These were identified taking inspiration from Your Europe, a website which aims to help citizens do things in other European countries – avoiding unnecessary inconvenience and red tape in regard to moving, living, studying, working, shopping or simply travelling abroad. However, the categories used in this factsheet aim to collect a broader range of information, focusing therefore not only on cross-border services, but also on national services.

The groups of services for citizens are as follows:

• Travel
• Work and retirement
• Vehicles
• Residence formalities
• Education and youth
• Health
• Family
• Consumers

Travel

Work and retirement

Vehicles

Residence formalities

Education and youth

Health

Family

Consumers

Digital Government Services for Businesses

The information in this section presents an overview of the basic public services provided to the Businesses. These were identified taking inspiration from Your Europe, a website which aims to help citizens do things in other European countries – avoiding unnecessary inconvenience and red tape in regard to moving, living, studying, working, shopping or simply travelling abroad. However, the categories used in this factsheet aim to collect a broader range of information, focusing therefore not only on cross-border services, but also on national services.

The groups of services for businesses are as follows:

• Running a business
• Taxation
• Selling in the EU
• Human Resources
• Product requirements
• Financing and Funding
• Dealing with Customers

Running a business

Taxation

Selling in the EU

Human Resources

Product requirements

Finance and funding

No public services were reported in this domain to date.

Dealing with customers

No public services were reported in this domain to date.

The Digital Government Factsheets

The factsheets present an overview of the state and progress of Digital Government European countries.

There are published on the Joinup platform, which is a joint initiative by the Directorate General for Informatics (DG DIGIT) and the Directorate General for Communications Networks, Content & Technology (DG CONNECT). This factsheet received valuable contribution from Rhian Jones who works for EU Policy at the Government Digital Service.

The Digital Government Factsheets are prepared for the European Commission by Wavestone

An action supported by ISA²

ISA² is a EUR 131 million programme of the European Commission which develops digital solutions that enable interoperable cross-border and cross-sector public services, for the benefit of public administrations, businesses and citizens across the EU.

ISA² supports a wide range of activities and solutions, among which is the National Interoperability Framework Observatory (NIFO) action.
ISA² solutions can be used free of charge and are open source when related to IT.

Contact ISA²

isa2@ec.europa.eu

Follow us

@EU_ISA2

@Joinup_eu

isa² programme