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New Digital Secondment Programme to bring experts from top
tech businesses into government
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AI to be harnessed to boost productivity
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Minister for the Cabinet Office gives speech on
digitally-focussed reform priorities
DIGITAL gurus from the private sector will be parachuted into
government departments as part of radical plans to turbocharge
the technological skills of civil servants, Cabinet Office
Minister revealed today.
Delivering a speech at respected think tank Policy Exchange,
Minister Quin set out a number of measures which will drive
forward the government’s plans to harness innovation and
technology to make Whitehall run more efficiently.
The Minister demonstrated his clear intent to overhaul the way
digital and data is utilised in government departments. This will
start with a series of secondment programmes which are set to
kick off in Autumn, beginning with the Digital and Data
secondment scheme. Government will work with the major tech
players, with plans to target FTSE100 companies in order to
second digital experts into departments as well as giving civil
servants the chance to spend time working within industry-leading
businesses. This will then be expanded to other sectors such as
science and engineering.
Minister Quin set out his ambition for the government to use AI
confidently and responsibly, where it matters most, to improve
public services and boost productivity. One example is the unit
responsible for exploring Automation and Innovation in
government, known as i.AI, who will become a permanent civil
service team following a successful trial.
Another initiative is the creation of a Data Marketplace which
will break down barriers to sharing data inside government. As we
believe there is potential for government data to drive value and
innovation in the economy, the government intends to make the
marketplace available to third parties outside government, such
as businesses and researchers by 2025.
In his speech, Minister said:
“There are brilliant people in our Civil Service but I know there
are many, as can be the case in any organisation, that feel
frustrated and stiffed by bureaucracy.
“Alongside the Cabinet Secretary, I shared with Civil Service
colleagues at Civil Service Live in Cardiff last week that we
need every colleague to be calling out waste and inefficiency,
determined to end the frustrations I know many share.
“They can do so by more specialisation, more access to outside
voices and fresh ideas, staying longer in post, delivering
certainty on what we are seeking to achieve and benefitting from
crisp evaluation on whether we have, while embracing the digital
future which will transform all our working lives.”
It comes as the latest efficiency drive, led by the Minister for
the Cabinet Office, has published savings of £4.4 billion in the
last financial year. The savings were made through central
government teams, including more than £1.3 billion saved
through fraud prevention and detection, much of which came
from advanced data analytics, and more than £370 million of
efficiencies found through modernising legacy IT systems.
The latest figures published by the Crown Commercial Service, an
agency of the Cabinet Office who help procurement teams from
different parts of government buy collectively, show a huge £3.8
billion in savings and commercial benefits achieved in the last
financial year.
Minister Quin highlighted the need to address the skills deficit
in the Civil Service, confirming his intention to oversee a
streamlined recruitment process including a new digital platform
for moving civil servants between departments seamlessly. This
will allow the Civil Service to be more agile as different areas
need more resourcing and is expected to save approximately £100m
over the next 5 years.
There were also further commitments to increase transparency
related to how the government evaluates its spending through the
establishment of a publicly-available Evaluation Registry. This
will be active across government from September 2023 and will be
publicly available from March 2024.
Previous reforms have already shown positive results, with the
Cabinet Office now on track to exceed its ambition for 50% of
Fast Stream recruits to have a STEM subject background.
ENDS
Notes to editors:
