Select Committee · Public Accounts Committee

Digital transformation in government: addressing barriers to efficiency

Status: Closed Opened: 29 Mar 2023 Closed: 18 Nov 2023 14 recommendations 11 conclusions 1 report

One of government’s main challenges is achieving efficiency savings. The civil service employs over half a million people in the UK and runs diverse operations and services that range from collecting taxes and processing benefits claims to, for example, granting rod fishing licences. In 2020-21, central government departments expected to spend £456 billion on these …

Reports

1 report

Title	HC No.	Published	Items	Response
Seventieth Report - Digital transformation in government: a…	HC 1229	13 Sep 2023	25	Responded

Recommendations & Conclusions

2 items

3 Recommendation Seventieth Report - Digital transformat… Acknowledged

Incorporate digital responsibilities in senior appointment letters and appoint digital-expert non-executive directors.

The requirement for senior generalist leaders to have a better understanding of digital business has not been formalised, and training is not focused on how digital developments interact with the complex government operational environment. The continued engagement with digital transformation of departments at permanent secretary level is essential to maintain …

Government response. The government agrees, but for digital responsibilities in appointment letters (a), it states CDDO will use learnings to understand adoption. For non-executive directors (b), it claims departments already benefit from existing NEDs with digital expertise, avoiding new appointments.

HM Treasury

23 Conclusion Seventieth Report - Digital transformat… Acknowledged

Departments struggle securing sufficient resource funding for ongoing digital system maintenance and updates.

Departments find it easier to secure capital funding for new developments than ongoing resource funding to maintain systems and keep them up to date.59 Moving services to cloud-based providers introduces new pricing models with an increasing emphasis on ‘pay-as-you-go’, which transfers traditional capital requirements to resource expenditure.60 Limiting resource expenditure …

Government response. The government agrees with the committee's observation on resource funding challenges. CDDO is engaging with HM Treasury and other functions to discuss these issues and plans to gather information on their strategies for digital reform.

HM Treasury

Oral evidence sessions

1 session

Date	Witnesses
22 May 2023	Alex Chisholm · Cabinet Office, Megan Lee Devlin · Cabinet Office, Paul Willmott · Cabinet Office	View ↗

Correspondence

2 letters

Date	Direction	Title
11 Sep 2023	—	Correspondence from Paul Lincoln CB OBE VR, Second Permanent Secretary, Ministr…
19 Jun 2023	—	Correspondence from Alex Chisholm, Civil Service Chief Operating Officer and Ca…

Accepted	19
Acknowledged	2
Deferred	2
Not Addressed	1