Government plans to revamp digital services to save £45bn

The government is pushing the idea of using more digital tools and artificial intelligence (AI) to improve the efficiency of the public sector.

The new digital strategy for public services involves transforming citizens’ experiences of government services, improving productivity and strengthening the foundations from how data is used. It also includes boosting skills and attracting talent.

The adoption of digital technologies has the potential to save taxpayers £45bn, as well as make it easier for people to access government services. The strategy is tied into the government’s Plan for Change to drive economic growth by helping businesses get the approvals they need more quickly.

Among the technologies being discussed is a new government smartphone app, which could be used to hold a virtual driver licence details, which could be used as a form of national ID, according to The Times.

Technology secretary Peter Kyle said that he wants to overhaul public sector technology in a bid to reduce costs and improve the people’s experience when dealing with public sector services. The overhaul of public services is being positioned as an approach that will free public servants and doctors to spend more time helping the people they serve.

“Technology that sits at the foundation of our country has been left to wither and decay under the hands of the previous government, too often grinding to a halt and stalling essential public services – racking up a huge bill for the taxpayer.

“It doesn’t have to be this way – and it won’t be with our Plan for Change. There is a £45bn jackpot for the public sector if we get technology adoption right, that’s twice the size of the black hole we faced when we took office, and it’s not an opportunity we can let pass us by.”

According to The State of digital government report, produced for the government by Bain & Company, which is being published later this week, government departments are overspending on IT contractors. The report found that government departments are bringing in contractors and consultants to complete basic IT tasks instead of using full-time staff, due to their inability to compete on salaries and headcount restrictions.

However, according to Bain & Company, the bill for contractor is £14.5bn, which is three times higher than if civil servants were to do these IT jobs for government departments.

Bain & Company’s report also highlights that a quarter of IT systems used by central government are outdated, leading to huge maintenance costs. According to the report, the maintenance cost of these legacy IT systems is three-to-four times more than if the technology was kept up to date.

The government said that a growing number of these outdated systems are “red-rated” for reliability and security risk. The report found that NHS England alone saw 123 critical service outages last year, leading to missed appointments and patients unable to get the care they need because staff were to use paper-based systems.

Among the reforms due to be announced later this week is an expanded role for Government Digital Service, which will be responsible for searching for IT vulnerabilities across the public sector that hackers could use to shut down essential services. The role involves support to help the organisations with vulnerable systems fix the issues to make the UK more resilient to cyber attacks.