Ministers to get IT overview

Timms: it will enable us to be more proactive

Changes to the role of the top ministerial committee on egovernment will for the first time give politicians an overview of all strategic Whitehall IT programmes, Computing can reveal.

In an exclusive interview, Treasury chief secretary and committee chairman Stephen Timms says the plan will give ministers the tools for unprecedented co-ordination of the Whitehall technology investments that are central to policy and spending commitments.

Quarterly reports on major programmes will not only improve performance, but also identify duplication and opportunities for sharing, establish overall priorities, and ensure dependencies are understood, says Timms.

‘We have noted that portfolio management of this kind has been successfully used in the private sector for some time,’ he said.

‘This is a big change in the way the committee works and it will enable us to be more proactive and effective in managing IT projects across government.’

At the committee meeting next month, the nine second-tier ministers who comprise the majority of the committee will agree a list of the top two or three programmes from each department. Submission of quarterly reports in a common format is expected to start in the summer.

Timms says major adjustments are not expected, despite the implication that better co-ordination could mean streamlining existing projects.

But reorganisation would be a sign of success, says Jim Norton, senior policy adviser at the Institute of Directors.

‘I would hope to see a number of changes as result of better co-ordination and, if not, I would be quite worried that the new role is not working,’ said Norton.

Ministerial interest in technology programmes is the latest sign of the growing recognition that IT is crucial to plans to improve efficiency and transform public services. But the effectiveness of the committee’s new role will rely on individual departments’ channels of communication.

‘This is more evidence that at least some senior people now understand that they have to connect the dots around government,’ said Eric Woods, government practice director at analyst Ovum.

‘The committee could have an important oversight capacity, but its power will come from the link back to departments’ cabinet ministers,’ he said.