Government plans will be reviewed

Newly-appointed head of egovernment Ian Watmore is to investigate the proliferation of government databases in response to Computing's Data Debate campaign.

Computing is calling for a review of the array of seemingly parallel projects, such as the ID cards database and the Citizen Information Project, to avoid confusion, wasted money and future data protection problems.

In an exclusive interview Watmore said his position as the government's chief information officer (CIO) was ideal for adressing government-wide issues.

'I would be interested in pursuing this issue and I am interested in anything Computing has to say on the subject,' said Watmore.

'This is certainly an issue that requires a whole-of-government view,' he said.

Watmore is keen to stress he doesn't yet have any answers.

'The issue is always that what looks like the same thing from 35,000 feet looks very different on the ground.

'We have to operate at both because we need to understand the detail in order to be useful at higher level.

'I am keen to say this is a core subject and I want to address it, but I'm not coming in with pre-determined solutions,' he said.

Watmore's eGovernment Unit has no central budget and will rely on his ability to build a 'team culture' across Whitehall.

The creation of a group of CIOs from across departments, agencies and local government to help break down traditional silos will be more effective than a central dictatorial role, says Watmore.

'We have a better chance of succeeding if we can get these people to operate as a team, developing the agenda for themselves and then taking it back to their individual departments,' he said.

'I genuinely believe people in Whitehall want to see the whole of government succeed and there is a serious frustration that not enough public service reform has succeeded because of problems in implementing IT programmes behind the scenes.

'That is a very strong source to tap into: everyone wants to do this for public service reform reasons, not IT reasons, and that is where we can win the hearts and minds of people concerned,' he said.

For the full interview go to Interview: head of egovernment Ian Watmore