Recommendation 5

While we are encouraged that the Department has ambitious plans to address the risks associated with its legacy IT systems, implementing these plans over the next three years will be highly challenging. Reducing reliance on legacy IT systems is a key part of the Department’s service modernisation programme and will also help it to manage the significant cyber risks it faces. The Department plans to reduce the overall risk from its legacy IT systems by 58% over the next three years and to tackle the larger systems which are used by more staff and customers first. If implemented successfully, these plans could transform the Department’s customer service and productivity. For example, the Department told us it is piloting a customer account which would enable citizens to do things across multiple benefits, rather than just one by one. However, as we have noted before, major digital transformation programmes have often failed to deliver as intended, and government is struggling to modernise a legacy environment at the same time as harbouring a major ambition to exploit opportunities from new technologies such as AI. recommendation The Department should set out more information about: • its plans for reducing the risk from legacy IT systems over the next three years, including milestones for replacing key systems, and the changes its customers can expect as a result; and • the timetable for rolling out its pilot to enable citizens to do things across multiple benefits, rather than just one by one, and how long it will take to evaluate this pilot. 6 1 Jobcentres and skills Introduction