Fragmentation as a major feature of the system - UK digital government review

Following the appointment of a tech panel to create a 10-year digital vision for the country, the UK just released the findings from the review of its digital government efforts – which showed that the central govtech initiatives have had limited impact. 

The review was led by the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology (DSIT) and Government Digital Service (GDS). 

Apart from limited public sector impact, some of the other key findings included poor data foundations posing a challenge for the public sector to reap the benefits of artificial intelligence (AI), a spending bias towards new initiatives, and duplicated efforts.  

Having engaged more than 100 public organisations, the report is “the first time a survey of this magnitude has been completed across the public sector,” the report stated. 

In another statement, Secretary of State Rt Hon Peter Kyle MP, also highlighted the next steps that are needed to be taken. 

These included the launch of the recently restructured GDS, rolling out five “kickstarter” initiatives within the first six months of 2025, as well as new collaborations in priority areas such as local government and public procurement. 

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Local government capacity building in focus 

Given the proximity of local government services to citizens’ lives, the report highlighted the challenges faced by local governments in leveraging technology for public services. 

Despite the UK digital government’s top 10 ranking in some notable publications, the report found a significant gap between central government and local government capabilities. 

Central digital capabilities have had limited sector wide impact. The efforts led by central government agencies – be it govtech, cybersecurity or data standards – had been focused on specific areas of the public sector rather than broader public service reform. 

Local governments have the lowest proportion of digital and data talent (at two per cent) compared to the National Health Services (NHS) and central government departments, a higher reliance on outsourcing its digitalisation work, low cloud adoption as well as high costs of managing legacy systems. 

The new GDS has been tasked to work more closely with local governments to “define new models for collaboration, aimed at improving outcomes for residents and reducing the financial burden on local authorities,” said Rt Hon Kyle. 

The plan breaks down further the type of collaborations between the central and local governments.  

These include extending GDS’ specialist talent programmes and technology procurement and strategic supplier management to help local governments, as well as setting common standards to facilitate better data exchange for integrated services. 

Firmer foundations needed to reap AI’s benefits 

Having identified over 140 use cases of AI in the central government, the report noted that public sector data is both fragmented and underutilised for that purpose. 

“Data should be treated as a public asset, along with the platforms that facilitate access to it.  

“Central government needs to be better connected and integrated with the wider public sector, including local government,” explained Rt Hon Kyle.  

Data fragmentation is caused by a combination of technical limitations, such as non-interoperable systems to exchange data; risk-adverse cultures; unclear regulations; and different governance standards. 

However, the report has identified localised initiatives by individual agencies to overcome the friction of sharing data - ranging from real-time platforms for tracking, to Application Programming Interface (API) services and open-source tools for data retrieval and linkage. 

In an earlier report released by the UK government on AI adoption planning in the public sector, data accessibility and quality remain significant challenges – as poor data quality can lead to inaccurate AI-generated results or potential exposure of sensitive data. 

Reduce spending bias, duplication efforts 

Govtech funding tends to go to new projects, rather than being invested in the continuous improvement of the technology estate, which includes service improvement, legacy modernisation and infrastructure upgrades. 

Even when funding is secured, parts of the budget will be taken off to fulfill new policy expectations, contributing to increasing operational risks and higher levels of technical debt, the report stated. 

Around 65 per cent of the digital and data leaders surveyed do not believe that the funding model is adequately designed to allow their organisation to invest in and run existing digital services effectively.  

Additionally, there is high duplication of services and systems across the public sector, which leads to people and businesses often requiring to navigate the gaps between multiple public services. 

For example, managing a long-term condition or disability in the UK requires interaction with more than 40 services across nine different organisations. 

As for systems, most organisations would implement their own, or develop unique and non-reusable solutions. For example, NHS England alone uses around 50 customer relationship management (CRM) platforms.  

There is also a lack of standardised integration frameworks which makes it difficult for systems to interact with each other – subsequently exacerbating the abovementioned issue of citizens having to navigate gaps in public services. 

To read more of our past coverage of GDS and the UK's digital government progress, click here.