John Suffolk took on his new role as head of the eGovernment Unit (eGU) at the Cabinet Office in June.
The former director general of Criminal Justice IT is now responsible for delivering the Transformational Government (TG) strategy developed by his predecessor, Ian Watmore.
Computing met with Suffolk to discuss his plans and the challenges he will face.
What are your priorities for the coming year?
My role is to pick up the implementation plan for TG and drive that forward. There are 13 work strands with 89 actions, of which 49 are due this year – see box.
There is also the work of Sir David Varney [former chairman of HM Revenue & Customs], which is looking at ways of changing public service delivery that will drive forward development.
TG also poses many questions that need answers, such as what to do with government’s multiple web sites and 500 contact centres, and how best to serve the citizen.
One of the really thorny issues we will have to address is around data sharing. Data sharing is only two little words, but it involves thousands of bits of work because it ties into assurance questions such as security and technology infrastructure.
One part of the TG plan that has gone very quiet is the concept of a team of ‘heavy hitters’ to work on government IT projects facing particular issues. Has the plan been dropped?
In the short term there has been a lot of activity in terms of chief information officer (CIO) recruitment for departments or the promotion of the CIO to board level. We did bring in some heavy hitters – about six have been operating, primarily in the Home Office – but the focus on the CIO role has taken precedence.
The different elements of TG are all inextricably linked and heavy hitters fit into a number of different areas, including portfolio management, prioritising of cross-cutting agendas, resource and skills issues and best practice for reliable project delivery. The heavy hitters concept has not been dropped but we have a basket of things that we are developing all together.
What do you anticipate will be the most significant challenges in the coming year?
I see a lot of hard work but no specific road blocks.
Of course what we are doing is not easy – if you add up all the big departments and local government, the scale is comparable with the FTSE 100. But we can do big IT, we have support from ministers and permanent secretaries, and we have a clear plan. Success is 99 per cent perspiration, and that is the phase we are in.
Some parts of the plan will go faster than others.
One of the more difficult areas is the issue of data and security, including identity management. Also, this is not the only change programme in government so we have challenges in terms of ‘agenda space’.
Regarding ID cards, how do you interpret the apparent pause in the development of the scheme? How far is the eGU involved in the development of the plan?
It is important to remember the bill was only passed in March, and the final Act changed a large number of provisions, so it is proper that following the placing of the bill the development team goes back and changes the design based on what is in the legislation.
The second factor is the Home Secretary John Reid’s review of the Home Office, because ID cards as a project fits within that.
The third issue is that the thinking around ID is maturing and increasingly looking at the whole issue of ID management, not just about the physical production of the card. The question is where you put the start point – it could be protecting our borders, or issuing cards for foreign nationals.
The eGU is in discussions in terms of architectures and standards and re-using government assets.
It is not a simple model and there are a range of questions, such as whether existing technologies such as Government Gateway, the Criminal Justice Exchange, or the Department for Work and Pensions customer information system have a role, how far these estates are part of the picture, and whether they are a help or hindrance.
What developments can we expect to see in the coming years regarding TG?
There will be a whole rash of announcements out of this year’s work on portfolio management, as well as the issues of reusing government assets, and the work from Sir David Varney.
Our work between now and the first progress report due in November is laying down the foundation. We then expect from 2007-11 to be picking up on Sir David Varney’s review and the 13 work strands.
We will probably re-issue the implementation plan in the first quarter of next year, to take into account the work done so far.
I expect we will also run a mid-life refresh of the overall strategy around 2008 to incorporate the lessons learned by that time.
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