Government Misses IT Reforms Deadline

The UK government has missed the deadline for implementing a number of its IT reform schemes, due to be completed last month.

In a bid to make their policy implementation a transparent process, all Whitehall departments published business plans in November 2010,  including the most relevant information to overall IT strategy such as reviews of major projects and changes to IT procurement.

According to the Structural Reform Plan Monthly Implementation Update (PDF), however, only five out of 15 target actions were carried out by the January 2011 deadline.

Among other plans, the Cabinet Office did not manage to establish draft government open standards or crowd-source for feedback. It also failed to publish all new central government contracts over £10,000 in full – which has been postponed until 11 February.

Work in progress

Despite falling behind the deadline on several projects, the Cabinet Office explained that other planned actions are in progress.

The report showed that the government’s plan to announce which of the first tranche of projects and programmes should be terminated or rescoped is being carried out, with the Cabinet Office currently verifying decommissioning.

Additionally, “strong progress” has also been made on its commitment to announce new open standards and procurement rules for ICT.

“Procurement Policy Note on the procurement rules for ICT has been issued; and by establishing the Major Projects Authority we now have a mechanism whereby skunk works can become involved before the launch of procurement,” according to the Implementation Update.

Transparency website

The monthly Implementation Update is part of Prime Minister David Cameron’s much-publicised transparency measures.

In November last year, the government launched a ‘transparency website‘ in a bid to provide UK citizens with greater insight into the month-by-month workings of government.

The Prime Minister described the website as a “complete revolution in how government operates”.

UK citizens can use the site to access details of ministers’ meetings and public affairs, timetables for implementing policies, staffing structures and salary ranges for top civil servants.