Recommendation 25

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