Recommendation 2

Government’s ability to make well-informed decisions and address issues as they arise during the pandemic has been hampered by slow progress in addressing longstanding issues with data and legacy IT. We have repeatedly highlighted longstanding data issues within government, including the lack of data standards, ageing IT systems, fragmented leadership, and a culture that does not support sharing data across departmental boundaries. These issues came to a head during the pandemic. For instance, missing or inaccurate telephone numbers within NHS patient records meant that the shielding programme was unable to follow-up letters to 375,000 vulnerable people with phone calls. Similarly, local government lacked access to key information from NHS Test and Trace and public health officials lacked timely information on tests conducted in privately-run sites, hindering their ability to understand and manage outbreaks within their communities. HM Treasury and 6 Initial lessons from the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic the Cabinet Office recognise that a key lesson from the pandemic has been the need to improve the quality of data available and assert that. investing in data and dealing with legacy IT issues is high on their priority list. Recommendation: HM Treasury and the Cabinet Office should write to us by 31 October 2021 setting out how they plan to reflect the need to address data and IT issues when prioritising bids for the next spending review. The Cabinet Office should also provide us with a list of its ongoing projects aimed at improving the quality and interoperability of the data available to government by 31 October 2021, detailing goals, target dates and progress for each project.