Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 25
25
Accepted
Civil service suffers from insufficient digital expertise and poor policy-digital integration.
Recommendation
The civil service is still quite generalist and led by people with a primarily policy background rather than by those with direct experience of digital business operations.64 Policy professionals do not have sufficient understanding to develop policies which work well in a digital organisational environment.65 There is low integration between policy 55 C&AG’s Report, paras 3.28–3.29 56 Q 66 57 Q 67 58 Q 68 59 C&AG’s Report, para 25; Q 62 60 Q 54 61 Q 69 62 C&AG’s Report, The challenges in implementing digital change, Session 2021–22, HC 575, paras 2.11–2.14 63 Written submission, DXC Technology DGE0004 64 Q 67; C&AG’s Report, para 31 65 Q 65 ; C&AG’s Report, para 26 Digital transformation in government: addressing the barriers to efficiency 15 teams and those teams involved in change, operations and services leading to policies and legislation that are difficult to implement digitally. Lack of a single service owner worsens this situation because there is no single point of focus for policy teams to interact with. Appointing single service owners will help to improve cross-functional working66 but digital capability building for policy people is needed. 66 Q 37 16 Digital transformation in government: addressing the barriers to efficiency
Government Response Summary
The government accepts the recommendation for digital capability building for policy people and appointing single service owners. CDDO will provide an outline for implementation by December 2023, with a target implementation date of June 2025.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
3.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: June 2025 3.2 CDDO will write to the Committee in December 2023 with an outline of how this recommendation will be implemented. The Committee should note that Civil Service HR is now Government People Group. 3.3 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: December 2025 3.4 CDDO is working with departmental leadership at Permanent Secretary level ‘Digital and Data Board’, to understand how this commitment could be adopted across government. Government departments and delivery bodies already benefit from the wealth of expertise provided by existing non-executive directors, a number of whom have direct digital experience or have led other functions within a digitally-focused organisation.