DWP joins Government Connect

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) will be the first major Whitehall department to sign up to pilots of a secure national infrastructure to link central and local government.

The local authority-led Government Connect (GC) programme launched last month (Computing, 9 February) to establish a platform for all public sector organisations to communicate securely with each other and with citizens. It also includes authentication systems to guarantee egovernment services.

DWP exchanges large amounts of data with local councils for the benefits system, and will start pilots of the GC information-sharing system in May.

‘The DWP and local authorities will seek assurance that the local infrastructure is secure before piloting secure interworking with local government,’ said a DWP spokeswoman.

GC has three main constituents. GC Exchange is a central hub using open standards and XML to enable information to be shared between councils, departments and agencies attached to the system.

GC Register provides a secure online authentication service and gives citizens a single sign-on to all participating bodies.

GC Mail is a national email system linked to existing public sector networks including Whitehall’s Government Secure Intranet, NHSNet and the Criminal Justice Extranet.

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