What next for digital government in the UK?
Estimated read time: 7 minutes
When I joined the Government Digital Service (GDS) in May 2012 I felt incredibly lucky. I became part of a movement with a mission to transform government. For me, the opportunities offered by technology were not about shiny new interfaces or misty-eyed enthusiasm for the latest gadgets. The mission of GDS was far more profound: transforming lives and reshaping the very fabric of how to govern.
Those beliefs weren’t new. Long before GDS existed, I’d been captivated by the promise of the Internet as a force for good, powered by the amazing GovCamp community (my first was LocalGovCamp Lincoln in 2009). In 2010 I wrote my MSc dissertation (Doing I.T. Ourselves: Citizen-produced websites and their relationship to public services) on how public services were being reshaped by citizens themselves. In response to the news of GDS’ creation I wrote AlphaLocalGov (May 2011) and then Government as a Local Platform (February 2012) So, it was pretty clear that I believed that embracing digital principles could help government become more open, more responsive, more trusted, more effective, and more attuned to the needs of its citizens (ideas I got to write up in The impact of digital government on citizen well-being, May 2019).
So when I joined GDS, I saw the mission as far more than building a better website. Being part of the ‘digital centre’ was to be part of advocating for a transformation in the relationship between the state and its people. The strength of the “Better for Less” argument wasn’t solely about efficiency; it was about governing better, to genuinely improve lives and build a society where trust in public institutions was strengthened through transparency and accountability.
But maybe my personal perspective was always overly optimistic.
The years since 2012 certainly haven’t been smooth. Avoidable mistakes were made and it’s important to acknowledge that things were far from perfect. At times, ambition outpaced the capacity to deliver. Undoubtedly some of what was done in the name of digital triggered legitimate criticism, perhaps leaving a hangover in perceptions of Agile, digital or even user-centred design in its wake. Equally, for a good chunk of that time, the British public sector has been destabilised and distracted by first Brexit, then a global pandemic, then war in Europe and all accompanied by the steady decline in the calibre and quality of elected government and its persistent unconstructive criticism of the civil service.
There is plenty to lament and bemoan.
Yet there is also plenty to champion and celebrate.
The UK should reflect proudly on far-reaching and wide-ranging public sector transformation. Perhaps not to the extent that we imagined, and definitely much room for criticism remains, as do significant structural flaws in the nation’s digital and data ‘plumbing’. However, the culture, norms, skills, governance structures, tools and common ambition that characterised that era have inspired hundreds, if not thousands, of public servants through a difficult decade. Their dedication to meeting user needs and equipping the public sector to be the best it can be has been a constant source of encouragement.
With a new government in post, a new advisory board convened and a reminagined Digital Centre of Government in the offing it begs the question to reflect on what next.
To reference Martha Lane Fox’s original rally cry, do we need a new Revolution?
Or, maybe at this point, Evolution might well be enough?
Instead, I wonder if what we really need is Reformation: a return to the fundamental principles that inspired the journey in the first place.
I acknowledge that I am an old bore from the 2012-2018 period. I’m not consciously yearning for a bygone era or trying to relitigate the battles of the past. But it is my view that there remains untapped potential behind those earlier ideas and practices. At a time when public sector budgets are under huge pressures and technology is again being held up as a panacea it seems vital to me that the UK government recaptures the spirit of possibility that was the hallmark of 2011-2015, and combines it with the wealth of hard-won knowledge from the successes and disappointments of the past decade.
The UK can learn so much, not only from its own experiences but from the remarkable strides made by nations around the world. The UK’s peers in the OECD, countries like South Korea, Denmark, Estonia, Norway and Ireland, as well as those Low and Middle Income countries that get rightly praised by the UN e-Government Survey, show how much progress can be made when vision is matched with long-term, sustained commitment and an execution that reflects clarity of political vision and continuity of senior leadership, even through electoral change.
I don’t know whether you share my view that the point of becoming a mature digital government hasn’t changed; that it is, as it always has been, to improve lives. It’s about harnessing technology as a means to an end, not an end in itself. It’s about figuring out better policies for better lives, where digital tools enhance the well-being of society. Squaring up to the challenges facing the UK in 2024, and beyond, means being grounded in the real needs of people, and not getting seduced by the allure of shiny technological possibilities.
This is not a formal review. No one commissioned it. Sadly I think that if someone were to commission the OECD to do one properly it would take too long to be usefully available. Indeed, I’m frustrated I didn’t write this six months ago. But I’ve done this exercise because I believe in the Digital Government Review as a product that offers a 360 degree perspective of the breadth and depth of digital government maturity.
The magic ingredient to a proper Review is of course the insight garnered through the detailed research conducted by the OECD team and the wisdom of the peer reviewers. So, a disclaimer (3 minutes to read), I can’t draw on any of that – this is an opinion piece. Some of those opinions might be better informed than others, and some of them might be totally wrong. I’d like to hope my strong opinions can be loosely held and so I genuinely look forward to being corrected.
Ultimately this review is an exercise in reflection. Perhaps it contributes nothing new to what’s already been written and thought about but hopefully there is something in here that forms a call to all—politicians, civil servants, technologists, and citizens—of embracing the challenge of building a government that not only meets the demands of the digital age but does so with empathy, transparency, and a relentless focus on improving the lives of those government serves.
Ben Welby – October 2024
If you’d like to learn more about my background and experience in digital transformation, visit the About Me (3 minutes to read) page
Since I wrote this, the UK government has published two significant documents: the State of Digital Government Review and the Blueprint for Modern Digital Government. These reports, are naturally more authoritative in providing a detailed assessment and fleshing out elements of a roadmap. They benefit from extensive data collection, interviews, and analysis, offering a ‘proper’ and authoritative perspective on the state of digital government in the UK.
I am not going to revisit and revise my work here in light of these. We naturally cover similar ground but I think that’s OK. My reflections, brought together before I returned to work in government are a snapshot of my experiences and observations. They are not a formal review but an opinion piece helping me to reflect on what we might learn from the past. Maybe you’ll find it interesting to peer into my brain.