Committees

Digital Government inquiry

Inquiry

The Government must improve its digital capabilities in order to enhance the relationship between the citizen and the State.

Rt Hon Norman Lamb MP, Chair of the Science and Technology Committee, said:

“The potential that digital Government can bring is huge: transforming the relationship between the citizen and the State, saving money and making public services more efficient and agile.

However, it is clear that the current digital service offered by the Government has lost momentum and is not transforming the citizen-State relationship as it could.

Single unique identifiers can transform the efficiency and transparency of Government services.

The Government should ensure there is a national debate on single unique identifiers for citizens to use when accessing public services along with the right of the citizen to know exactly what the Government is doing with their data. In the UK, we have no idea when and how Government departments are accessing and using our data.

We could learn from the very different relationship between citizen and the state in Estonia.

As well as a lack of leadership, we also heard of skill shortages and legacy systems, which increase the risk of cyber security attacks.

But addressing these challenges requires money and the Government must be willing to invest to save in the future.

The Government must re-address its approach to digitisation quickly if it wants to retain public trust and its envied position on the world stage.”

Reports, special reports and government responses

View all reports and responses
18th Report - Digital Government
Inquiry Digital Government inquiry
Open PDF
Opens in new window
Open HTML
Opens in new window
HC 1455
Report

Correspondence

View all correspondence
Correspondence between the Chair of the Committee and John Manzoni, Chief Executive of the Civil Service and Cabinet Office Permanent Secretary, regarding Digital Government, 19 December 2018
Inquiry Digital Government inquiry
Open PDF
Opens in new window
Correspondence
Correspondence between the Chair of the Committee and John Manzoni, Chief Executive of the Civil Service and Cabinet Office Permanent Secretary, regarding Digital Government, 10 January 2019
Inquiry Digital Government inquiry
Open PDF
Opens in new window
Correspondence

Oral evidence transcripts

View all oral evidence transcripts
4 March 2019
Inquiry Digital Government inquiry
Witnesses Matthew Gould, Director General for Digital and Media Policy, Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, Kevin Cunnington, Director General, Government Digital Service, and Simon McKinnon, Interim Chief Digital and Information Officer, Department for Work and Pensions; Margot James MP, Minister for Digital and Creative Industries, Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, and Oliver Dowden MP, Minister for Implementation, Cabinet Office
Open PDF
300KB
Open HTML
354KB
Oral Evidence
8 January 2019
Inquiry Digital Government inquiry
Witnesses Simon Hansford, Co-founder and Chief Executive, UKCloud, Professor Chris Johnson, Member of the Executive Committee, UK Computing Research Committee, and Antony Walker, Deputy Chief Executive Officer, techUK; Professor Helen Margetts, Programme Director for Public Policy, The Alan Turing Institute, Peter Wells, Head of Policy, Open Data Institute, and Daniel Korski, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, PUBLIC
Open PDF
315KB
Open HTML
326KB
Oral Evidence
4 December 2018
Inquiry Digital Government inquiry
Witnesses Sam Smith, Coordinator, medConfidential, Professor Vishanth Weerakkody, Professor of Information Systems Management and Governance, University of Bradford, Robert McLaren, Head of Industry, Technology and Innovation, Policy Connect, and Professor Helen Kennedy, Professor of Digital Society, University of Sheffield; Dr Fiona Lugg-Widger, Research Associate for Routine Data, Centre for Trials Research, Tom Smith, Managing Director of the Data Science Campus, Office for National Statistics, Joel Bellman, Partner, Deloitte, and Cllr Peter Fleming, Chairman of the LGA Improvement and Innovation Board, Local Government Association
Open PDF
313KB
Open HTML
339KB
Oral Evidence

Written evidence

View all written evidence
Dr Louise Bennett, Information Assurance Advisory Council (IAAC) and Dr Edgar A Whitley, London School of Economics and Political Science (DIG0017)
Open PDF
118KB
Open HTML
28KB
Cabinet Office (DIG0034)
Open PDF
214KB
Open HTML
260KB
Cloud Kickers (DIG0033)
Open PDF
83KB
Open HTML
46KB

Other publications

No other publications published.

Contact us

We can’t usually help you with an individual problem or a specific complaint.

  • Email: commonssitc@parliament.uk
  • Phone: 020 7219 5023 (general enquiries) | 020 7219 4984 (media enquiries)
  • Address: Science, Innovation and Technology Committee, House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA