Good letter from Chi Onwurah seeking clarification about the split of DSIT’s responsibilities. The fact that there is still little clarity about the split is concerning, but it is a silver lining that the committee’s really good work will be continuing committees.parliament.uk/publications...

Following on from @jackworlidge.bsky.social's analysis, here are a few other interesting things to pull out from this year's civil service stats (1/3)

Jack Worlidge@jackworlidge.bsky.social · last wk.

The civil service team at @instituteforgovernment.org.uk has been busy today crunching the numbers of the Cabinet Office's annual civil service statistics release... As ever, plenty of interest! Couple of bits below ⬇️

After spending a bit of time digesting the news of DSIT's split, I've written a few thoughts about the risks that this might create 👇 www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/comment/demo...

Demolishing DSIT risks losing focus, expertise and coordination | Institute for Government

The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology made sense.

instituteforgovernment.org.uk

Agree with this. The (then) Science and Technology Committee existed prior to DSIT and should continue after it, including scrutiny of public sector adoption of digital, data and AI, the responsibility for which is now distributed across departments. committees.parliament.uk/committee/13...

Role - Science, Innovation and Technology Committee - Committees - UK Parliament

The Science, Innovation and Technology Select Committee is appointed by the House of Commons to examine the expenditure, administration and policy of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technol...

committees.parliament.uk

Jenny Andrew@drandrewv2.bsky.social · 2w ago

Plenty being said about the dissolution of DSIT… personally, I think it’ll be a nightmare for a bunch of civil servants, esp. the tech specialists, and could go either way for R&D, BUT I am grieving the loss of the mighty SITC - the select committee - who IMO have been the stars of this Parliament.

The row over funding the VAT cut does not matter much in the wider scheme of things - but should serve as a warning to the Burnham govt to be more careful in announcements. If @hcdunlop.bsky.social and I knew govt had not made clear how it would fund ID cards, people inside govt knew that too

Good thread from @gavinfreeguard.com about the decision to split DSIT. It struggled with its ability to influence (esp. as digital centre of govt) across govt, hiring senior roles, and has just had a reorg with the move of GDS in 2024. But the new depts have big & more varied (& unrelated) briefs

Gavin Freeguard@gavinfreeguard.com · 2w ago

Incompatible systems. Different contractual terms. Working out how teams fit together. Turf wars over responsibilities. New arrangements bedding in. Stakeholders (again!) having to rebuild relationships. Etc Etc. Etc. Policy paralysis, delayed delivery, opportunity costs all the way down.

This is a real shame - Patrick Vallance has been a really excellent and committed Science Minister who knew the territory and took a strategic view. Big shoes to fill

@jillongovt.bsky.social and I had a report ready to go but were pipped to the post by Burnham’s (predictable) decision to bring digital ID to an end. There were too many questions to answer and little that had been decided, making it an easier (and popular) decision than most will be for Burnham!

Jill Rutter@jillongovt.bsky.social · 2w ago

First concrete decision from Burnham govt - binning the digital ID scheme - new comment from @hcdunlop.bsky.social and me @instituteforgovernment.org.uk www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/comment/andy... Not a surprise and good to move quickly ..but will still need a view on other govt ID work

well @hcdunlop.bsky.social and I had a paper due to come out for @instituteforgovernment.org.uk on what Andy Burnham should think about before scrapping digital ID but looks as though he may preempt us (£)https://www.ft.com/content/8f5445ab-dacb-4908-909f-277853ad0f50?syn-25a6b1a6=1

Burnham scraps new digital ID scheme

Incoming prime minister says money saved will go towards tackling cost-of-living crisis

ft.com

I had a guess a few months ago that big changes might be afoot in GDS and it looks like they are. GDS published a blog saying that they are "evolving" the service standard "to define what “good” looks like for the future of public services" (1/3)

Evolving the Service Standard for the future of public services

We’re evolving the Service Standard from a one-off test into a living standard for modern, end-to-end public services. Here’s how – and how to be involved.

gds.blog.gov.uk

Heloise Dunlop@hcdunlop.bsky.social · 4mo ago

It’s a significant move towards more autonomy and suggests bigger changes in the mix in GDS, given how interlinked spend controls, the service standard and tech code of practice are. It will be interesting to see how or if this affects other infrastructure in place since the start of GDS! (3/4)

👇It was fascinating to co-author this report on delivering digital transformation in public services and pull out the 7 lessons for future leaders of digital transformation to keep in mind:

Cassia Rowland@cassiarowland.bsky.social · last mo.

NEW REPORT: How to deliver digital transformation in public services. Successive governments have looked to digital solutions for problems facing public services – with varying success. We’ve looked at past examples and drawn out 7 lessons for people working on future programmes:

New people survey demographic data for 2025 has been published - the numbers on socio-economic background of civil servants does not seem to have changed significantly from 2024 data. A very slight (1pp) increase in representation at SCS of civil servants from a lower SEB, but broadly static (1/2)

Excellent to see Darren Jones announce "performance based pay progression" for the senior civil service. It hopefully starts to change some bad incentives in the system as it is at the moment...

Written statements - Written questions, answers and statements - UK Parliament

Information from UK Parliament on written questions & answers, written statements and daily reports.

questions-statements.parliament.uk

Good to see the new (but still interim) govt CTO talking about creating stronger data infrastructure & foundations. It's positive that govt wants better join up - building public trust and giving careful thought to where & why, when it identifies what data/systems to link, will be v important.

Chief technology officer sets out vision for 'intelligent government'

'Interoperability, not centralisation, will allow us to act as one', Sonia Patel says

civilserviceworld.com

This is just the kind of testing and learning government should be doing to better understand how to support people out of work due to ill health (£) www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...

Sick notes ‘scrapped’ under plans to reduce benefit claimants

Social prescribers will be brought in to help those struggling with their health to stay in work in an attempt to reduce spiralling costs

thetimes.com

This briefing by @adalovelaceinst.bsky.social provides a great toolkit to evaluate claims about AI. Alights on the same point in Whitehall Monitor: productivity gains are more complex than time savings alone. Govt is an org w/ existing problems - there needs to be a clear purpose for AI adoption

Measuring up

Evaluating claims about AI and productivity in the UK public sector

adalovelaceinstitute.org

PAC’s report on the BoE’s successful RTGS transformation programme made recs to govt – a great e.g. of reporting good practice & showing that successful digital transformation is possible! publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm5901/cm...

I’ve written on the new @instituteforgovernment.org.uk report on employment support in today’s newsletter:

Novel approach needed for UK’s sick and unemployed

A shift to local initiatives may help more people back into work

ft.com

There's so much to write about everything that's happening with Mandelson vetting fight (and always happy to explain the process, others have done so v well on here). But the v. aggressive approach from no10 is over the weekend is just so damaging - so have tried to capture some of that

The Mandelson vetting blame-game is causing serious damage to ministerial-civil service relations | Institute for Government

The sacking of Olly Robbins has been badly handled by Keir Starmer.

instituteforgovernment.org.uk

Our new IfG report explores what a better system of employment support for people out of work due to ill health could look like. DWP's centralised approach to date has some strengths, but has limited integration with other services and the innovation needed to better understand what works 🧵

Martha Ford@martha-ford.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Government should devolve greater responsibility for employment support. Our report, published today, sets out how government could better support people out of work due to ill health: www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/publication/... Why write this now?

In a first for the IfG, @meganbryer.bsky.social and I have translated two pieces about the upcoming Welsh and Scottish elections into Cymraeg! 1/🧵

a red dragon on a green and white flag

ALT: a red dragon on a green and white flag

media.tenor.com

Surely then no other government would be able to do anything? Enter Britain’s AI Security Institute, established by the Sunak gov’t & rebadged by the Starmer one AISI successfully negotiated access to Mythos preview. So far as we know, it is the only foreign government body to have done so 9/

This looks like a big change to GDS spend controls – which have been in place since 2010! Spend controls were put in place to ensure that tech projects/programmes followed the technology code of practice & are also part of the service assessment process (1/4) www.gov.uk/government/p...

Digital Assurance Playbook

gov.uk

This mismatch between the expansive vision for digital ID and the potential technical options is one govt will need to watch out for - govt needs to keep its focus on explaining how digital ID is useful for the public

Rachel Coldicutt@rachelcoldicutt.bsky.social · 4mo ago

but the consultation as whole lays out a veritable Swiss Army knife of possibilities without necessarily committing to much, each potential route offering different infrastructural and user-experience considerations and diff impacts on rights.

This would obviously be very bad for state capacity. The binding constraint on civil servants getting stuff done is, very clearly, not their belief in the political project. Have tried to capture some of this - while obvious it still bears saying. www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/comment/refo...

Reform UK government would replace top civil servants with those ‘more likely to implement party’s priorities’

Exclusive: Senior party figures conclude outsiders or existing senior staff deemed more suitable should take over from current permanent secretaries

theguardian.com

It's that time again... ONS Public Sector Employment dropped today, revealing a familiar pattern - the civil service just can't stop growing. An increase of 535 from Q3 2025 to Q4 2025 brings the total to 520,860 (FTE). @instituteforgovernment.org.uk

What can the Foreign Office actually do when British nationals are caught up in a crisis overseas? @hcdunlop.bsky.social and @howesdaniel.bsky.social break down the support the UK can - and can’t - provide, and why expectations often exceed reality. www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/article/expl...

How does the Foreign Office help British nationals in a crisis? | Institute for Government

There are several ways the UK government steps in to help British nationals abroad.

instituteforgovernment.org.uk

Only a quarter of civil servants think they save at least an hour a week using AI, but over 70% think AI will change how they do their current jobs. How do you square that? Hype? Bad tools? Poor training? Great thread from @hcdunlop.bsky.social looking at the new AI questions in the people survey.

Heloise Dunlop@hcdunlop.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Interestingly, 70.9% of respondents overall feel as if it is likely or v likely AI will change how they do their current jobs in the next 5 years. Even the lowest scoring depts for time savings, DWP and HMRC, report high scores (72.1% and 71.5% respectively). This gap is something to watch... (5/5)

A bit late to the game, but some thoughts on the 2025 civil service people survey, which for the first time asked two qs about AI. There's little we can be sure about (it's new data!), but there are some interesting observations to keep an eye on... (1/5) www.gov.uk/government/p...

Civil Service People Survey: 2025 results

The results of the 2025 People Survey, which looks at civil servants' attitudes to and experience of working in government departments, are provided in this page.

gov.uk

The govt’s now-published digital ID consultation sets a different tone and vision for digital ID. I wrote some thoughts on what that means below 👇 www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/comment/gove...

The government’s consultation on digital ID marks a shift in tone and substance | Institute for Government

Will the government’s digital ID plan recover from Keir Starmer’s hasty false start?

instituteforgovernment.org.uk