Government will ignore IT at its peril

The IT sector is the second most productive in the UK economy

Do politicians actually take the technology sector and the IT profession seriously?

Last week, new business secretary Peter Mandelson announced that ministerial responsibility for IT is to be split across three different people in his departmental team.

Communications, technology and broadcasting minister Stephen Carter, who is also a minister in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, has responsibility for “electronics and IT services” as well as “communications and content industries”, covering most IT companies as well as ISPs and web media companies.

Employment relations and postal affairs minister Pat McFadden is now in charge of “transformational government” issues, although only as they relate to business. The transformational government strategy itself remains the responsibility of the Cabinet Office, under Tom Watson.

Economic and business minister Ian Pearson’s portfolio includes waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) issues, including compliance with the WEEE directive. However, these laws are policed by the Environment Agency, which reports through the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Confused? You should be.

The IT sector is the second most productive in the UK economy, worth a huge £66.5bn in 2006.

And its contribution of 6.4 per cent of GDP is less than a single per cent behind the financial services industry ­ and given the current turmoil in that sector, IT might edge ahead soon.

But it is not just government. The rhetoric from the recent party conferences was all about scrapping IT projects and cutting spending. No one talked about the critical role technology can and must play in improving public services and making government more efficient and cost effective.

Is it any surprise that IT skills and resources are being offshored? Or that the IT profession is struggling to recruit the 140,000 new entrants it is forecast to need every year for the next five years? It is already past the time that IT is given the priority it deserves in government.