News

IT for government and public sector

October 20, 2020 20 Oct'20
Police given access to self-isolation data

NHS Test and Trace self-isolation data will be made available to police after new guidance changes data-sharing rules
October 20, 2020 20 Oct'20
MoD launches science and technology strategy

Strategy sets out how the department will find and fund technological breakthroughs, focus on data and deliver next-generation military hardware
October 20, 2020 20 Oct'20
Labour shares concerns over ‘whitewash’ Horizon IT inquiry

Labour MPs write to postal affairs minister expressing fears that the inquiry into the Horizon IT scandal does not guarantee cooperation from the Post Office, Fujitsu and government
October 20, 2020 20 Oct'20
Making Tax Digital could impose unreasonable costs on taxpayers, says PAC

Public Accounts Committee calls on HMRC to assess whether the administrative burden placed on taxpayers through its Making Tax Digital programme is reasonable before continuing to roll it out

October 19, 2020 19 Oct'20
Scottish Borders extends CGI outsourcing contract until 2040

CGI will continue to provide the Scottish council’s end-to-end managed IT services until 2040, making it one of the longest extensions in the company’s history
October 19, 2020 19 Oct'20
UK Space Agency funds three Covid-19 tech projects

Projects include drones to carry coronavirus tests and samples, a mobile app using satellite technology to provide access to community transport, and e-learning courses in Earth observation data analysis
October 16, 2020 16 Oct'20
UK announces proposals to protect cash amid evolution of digital payments

Government wants to ensure access to physical currency by consumers at retailers of all sizes
October 16, 2020 16 Oct'20
Serco and Sitel contact-tracing contracts agreed to be penalty-free for underperformance

Penalties for underperformance were not included in NHS contact-tracing contracts with Serco and Sitel, it has emerged from questions to the Department of Health by Conservative MP David Davis
October 16, 2020 16 Oct'20
UK government aims to prioritise future innovations

Government research has been published to enable evidence-based recommendations on emerging technology with greatest impact
October 16, 2020 16 Oct'20
Welsh shared electronic record project is far from realising ambition, says auditor

Welsh Community Care Information System roll-out, originally due in 2018, is taking longer and costing more than expected, and the prospect of a full take-up among local organisations is still uncertain

October 16, 2020 16 Oct'20
Spanish court to question witnesses over ‘illegal surveillance’ of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange

The Spanish National Court in Madrid is to hear evidence from information security expert Andy Müller-Maguhn and two lawyers who were subject to ‘illegal surveillance’ of their meetings with Julian Assange at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London
October 16, 2020 16 Oct'20
Services Australia taps AI in document processing

Services Australia and Capgemini have developed an AI engine to classify and extract information from claim documents in a pilot project
October 15, 2020 15 Oct'20
UK regulators lack the skills and expertise to cope with increasing use of algorithms

MPs told that multiple regulators will be needed to govern the ever-growing use of algorithmic systems in all areas of the economy and public sector
October 15, 2020 15 Oct'20
Emerging tech can improve regulatory processes, says BEIS report

Regulators should take a best-practice approach to the use of emerging technologies but need to be aware of the challenges, according to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
October 15, 2020 15 Oct'20
Post Office races to solve IT error under gaze of public and banks

The Post Office is focusing urgently on fixing an IT error suffered by a subpostmaster amid the ongoing IT scandal
October 15, 2020 15 Oct'20
Hackney services still offline in ongoing cyber attack

Services remain disrupted two days after council was hit by a serious incident, as residents are warned to be on their guard
October 14, 2020 14 Oct'20
Public sector security failings leave UK at risk, says think tank

Reform report urges adoption of new policies in the next version of the UK’s National Cyber Security Strategy
October 14, 2020 14 Oct'20
Unions urge government to improve conditions for Amazon workers

Unions have urged the UK government to leverage its position as a client of Amazon to improve conditions for workers
October 14, 2020 14 Oct'20
US Elections: Malicious internet domains spike as campaigns heat up

Internet domains related to the US presidential election are 56% more likely to be malicious than regular ones
October 13, 2020 13 Oct'20
GMB Union boss calls for Dido Harding to resign from NHS Test and Trace

Following the news that a technical glitch caused 16,000 coronavirus cases to go unreported, the GMB Union has called for Test and Trace chair Dido Harding to quit
October 13, 2020 13 Oct'20
Government minister’s plea for subpostmasters to take part in review of IT scandal rejected

Government minister met with former subpostmaster online in an attempt to get victims of the Post Office Horizon scandal involved in government review
October 13, 2020 13 Oct'20
Hackney Council services offline after ‘serious’ cyber attack

Services to residents of the London borough of Hackney are being disrupted by a cyber attack
October 13, 2020 13 Oct'20
HMRC signs five-year £169m contract with Fujitsu for VME platform

Supplier will host 13 HMRC applications on its virtual managed environment platform, following its role as an incumbent provider to the department under two different contracts
October 12, 2020 12 Oct'20
UK economy could see blockchain boost worth £57bn by 2030

Blockchain could provide major economic benefits by being used to track and trace products and services
October 12, 2020 12 Oct'20
Regional Covid-19 lockdowns will leave digitally excluded ‘stranded’

Charity calls on government to do more to level up digital skills as it warns that tougher regional lockdowns in the Midlands and the North will hit digitally excluded people the hardest
October 12, 2020 12 Oct'20
Government gives update on post-Brexit customs systems

Cabinet Office’s Border and Protocol Delivery Group provides further clarity on the readiness of the UK’s post-Brexit border IT systems
October 08, 2020 08 Oct'20
Edinburgh sets out plans to become a smart city

Three-year digital plan includes empowering people to become ‘smart citizens’, introducing sensor technology, 5G and smart public transport, and moving most of the council’s systems to the cloud
October 08, 2020 08 Oct'20
Crown Prosecution Service suffers 1,600 data breaches in 12 months

CPS sees a spike in data security incidents, many of them serious enough to be reported to the Information Commissioner’s Office
October 07, 2020 07 Oct'20
Department for Education failed to protect data on millions of children, says ICO

The Department for Education’s National Pupil Database, which contains millions of items of data on the UK’s schoolchildren, was found to be non-compliant with data protection regulations across the board
October 06, 2020 06 Oct'20
Government to provide 100,000 devices for remote learning

The Department for Education is offering education providers access to additional devices to help with remote learning during the coronavirus pandemic
October 06, 2020 06 Oct'20
Government deaf to loud calls for statutory public inquiry into Post Office scandal

MPs are demanding the government holds a full statutory public inquiry into the Post Office IT scandal
October 06, 2020 06 Oct'20
Scotland seeks views on digital government

Scottish government consults on how to build a digital Scotland, ahead of plans to deliver a new digital strategy for the country
October 06, 2020 06 Oct'20
Scotland digital identity prototype pilot successful

Digital Identity Scotland’s 10-week test of its digital identity prototype finds that users understand the concept of two-factor authentication and using the same credentials across services
October 05, 2020 05 Oct'20
Facebook critics launch ‘Real Facebook Oversight Board’

Organisation formed as an ‘emergency response’ to address the ‘immediate risk’ posed by Facebook’s role in the US election
October 05, 2020 05 Oct'20
HMRC warns locked-down freshers of ‘wave’ of tax scams

New university intake may be being targeted by cyber criminals amid Covid-19 confusion
October 05, 2020 05 Oct'20
Regulator wants fintechs to address pandemic financial challenges

UK financial services regulator is supporting fintechs in addressing some of the challenges consumers and small businesses face amid the current pandemic
October 05, 2020 05 Oct'20
FBI seized ‘legally privileged’ material from Ecuador Embassy, claims Julian Assange’s lawyer

The US struck a secret deal with Ecuador to seize WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s property from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London days before his arrest. The haul included legally privileged documents, says his solicitor
October 05, 2020 05 Oct'20
Technical glitch causes nearly 16,000 Covid-19 cases to go unreported

According to Public Health England, a technical glitch led to 15,841 positive results between 25 September and 2 October not being included in reported coronavirus cases
October 02, 2020 02 Oct'20
WikiLeaks led the way for newsrooms to use encryption to protect sources, says Italian journalist

Stefania Maurizi says in written evidence that Julian Assange pioneered the use of encryption by journalists to protect sources. Her work shows that the US put pressure on Italy to stop the extradition and prosecution of CIA officers responsible for...
October 02, 2020 02 Oct'20
Honesty is the best policy: Forging a security culture in the NHS

Clinician and technologist Sam Shah helped set up NHSX in 2019. Now he’s helping advance digital transformation in healthcare from the outside, and a big part of that is addressing security in the sector
October 02, 2020 02 Oct'20
Future UK-EU data sharing put at risk by Brexit legislation

When the Brexit transition period ends, UK ministers will have the power to forge new data-sharing arrangements that risk undermining the viability of future data transfers with the European Union
October 02, 2020 02 Oct'20
How CH Robinson is embracing IoT to transform supply chains in the pandemic

Logistics giant has partnered with Microsoft to sophisticate its approach to digitisation and better serve its clients with more visibility and crucial insights for decision-making
October 02, 2020 02 Oct'20
Justice for subpostmasters as wrongful criminal convictions are set to be quashed

The Post Office has chosen not to contest 44 out of 47 appeals, meaning most are likely to have their names cleared, but others still face a Court of Appeal battle for justice
October 01, 2020 01 Oct'20
Judge to give verdict on Julian Assange’s extradition after Christmas

Judge Vanessa Baraitser said today that she would make a ruling in early January on whether WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange should be extradited to the US
October 01, 2020 01 Oct'20
WikiLeaks revelations ‘shed light of truth’ on war on terror, court hears

WikiLeaks disclosures led to ‘revelations of extraordinary journalistic importance’ about detention in Guantanamo Bay and civilian casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan
October 01, 2020 01 Oct'20
Government on the hunt for GDS CEO

Whitehall is recruiting for a Government Digital Service CEO who will report to the government chief digital officer, offering £168,000 a year for the role
October 01, 2020 01 Oct'20
Most people are happy to see their GP virtually, survey shows

Research from healthtech company Visionable finds there has been a significant rise in GP video consultations, and that attitudes to communication technology have changed during the pandemic
October 01, 2020 01 Oct'20
Trust in government technology is key to adoption

Panellists at GovTech Summit 2020 speak about the need to build trust in government digital services, as the pandemic has created room for increased use of technology in the public sector
October 01, 2020 01 Oct'20
Blackbaud admits hackers stole banking details, passwords

Software firm paid off a ransomware gang, believed its hackers when they said they had destroyed the data, and has now discovered the cyber criminals accessed even more sensitive information than it thought
September 30, 2020 30 Sep'20
‘American friends’ spied on Julian Assange in Ecuadorian Embassy, court hears

Two former employees of UC Global, which provides security services to the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, claim the company shared surveillance footage with the US of the WikiLeaks founder meeting with lawyers and other visitors