03 Jun 2009
Tom Watson, the minister in charge of the Transformational Government agenda, will stand down as a Cabinet Office minister in the forthcoming Cabinet reshuffle, according to the BBC.
Parliament's first blogger and an IT enthusiast, Watson set up the Power of Information taskforce and was responsible for putting more public services online.
But he will be better known outside the IT world as the MP involved in the attempted "coup" that forced Tony Blair to announce his retirement date for the following summer.
He was rewarded by new prime minister Gordon Brown with the plum Cabinet Office role.
Some parts of the media implicated him by association with the Damian McBride "smear" emails, and his blogging activities have been light ever since.
Watson also featured in The Daily Telegraph's MPs' expenses scandal disclosures.
One of Watson's last acts was to appoint a top civil servant responsible for promoting digital engagement across government, which went to former deputy government chief information officer Andrew Stott.
Have your say on this article
Newsletters
Latest stories from Public Sector
Latest videos
You may also like
Public Sector jobs
Technology Patent Wars
Case studies from large organisations across all sectors
... And rich media, and flexible working, and peaks in traffic ...
Upcoming Events
Join us for this Computing web seminar, in which the Head of BI at the Co-operative Group Nick Colebourn will be explaining just how he reigned in the Group’s sprawling database estate and how significant savings were realised and data quality improved as a result.
Date: 31 May 2012
Time: 11:00 AM
Live June 13th 11:00am: Register now. During this web seminar we will be looking at the sorts of incidents that can bring data centres grinding to a halt and what can be done about them.
Date: 13 Jun 2012
Time: 11:00 am
Receive the latest jobs direct to your inbox
Are you being paid what you are worth?
