Big shift in the UK’s digital strategy

Right after the announcement that the government CIO John Suffolk would resign at the end of the year 2010, Jayne Nickalls, chief executive of the online governmental portal Directgov also leaves her post. And this happened just days before Martha Lane Fox, the official British digital champion, released her report on the government’s central web portal, which aims at setting digital public services “by default”.

Lane Fox’s report states that radical improvement to online public services would be necessary and that digital services need to be simplified. It adds that all government transactional services need to be made available through the Directgov, and that online government information and services need to be available to the public wherever people are online. This could be achieved by syndicating and opening up information, applications and services to other organisations.

The review also says that recruiting an Executive Director for Digital and Information in the Cabinet Office would drive change and bring together existing teams working in this area.

In his response to the review, Francis Maude said he had asked officials to get on with proposals including a timetable for migrating all of government’s transactional services to Directgov. He was cautious, however, about suggestions that government should move to a single domain, and said he would have to consult with colleagues before making a decision. He approved the recruitment of an executive director of digital and information in the Cabinet Office.

Further information:

Martha Lane Fox’s report

Francis Maude’s answer to the report

Directgov