Government IT strategy lacks detail, report says

The government's IT Strategy lacks detail and simply listing what it intends to achieve within two years is insufficient, says a report by the public accounts committee.

The public accounts committee has said that the government's IT strategy needs quantitative targets to measure success, as well as more detail on cybersecurity. Photo credit: Trodel/Flickr

According to the committee, the IT Strategy, which was published by the Cabinet Office in March, has little detail about cybersecurity. Given the drive to move government services online, the report expresses "serious concerns" about security issues.

It calls on the government's Efficiency and Reform Group (ERG) to clarify how cybersecurity will be integrated into the strategy.

Although the strategy is ambitious, with 30 actions to be delivered in 24 months, the document says that without quantitative targets, or a baseline to current performance, success will be difficult to measure.

The Cabinet Office is due to publish an implementation plan next month, however. Margaret Hodge, chair of the committee, said that it "must include clear indicators that can be used by this committee to evaluate the success of the strategy and whether it is delivering good value for money".

The strategy places an emphasis on smaller technology projects, cutting duplication and creating a single domain for public access to government. But the committee points out that the strategy cannot be delivered by the Cabinet Office alone, and relies on its principles being adopted across government, including its IT suppliers.

On the ERG, the report says that the group has only a small team of experts to monitor more than 50 major projects, and that it was unable to provide details about these projects.

The public accounts committee (PAC) says that the strategy is in its early stages and that its success will be shown when complex programmes, such as the Department for Work and Pensions's Universal Credit are delivered on time and to budget, and when there are fewer critical reports about IT projects from the National Audit Office.

Hodge added: "The plan should also set out how the government will meet its aspiration to open up its ICT market to small and medium-sized enterprises, an important step for achieving value for money in ICT procurement."

Commenting on the findings, Chris Pennell, principal analyst at Kable, said: "The fact that there are still gaps in the coalition's ICT vision after a year in power shows just how complicated the ERG's task is.

"I guess the question is how much effort will be put into plugging these gaps, given the wide portfolio currently being managed by such a small team in the ERG.

"Active buy-in from suppliers has been fairly easy so far; the hard part will be getting departments to toe the line at an operational level when the strategy has so little detail."

This story originally appeared on Guardian Government Computing.