IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt told an Age UK conference that seven ‘pathfinders’, including CCGs and local authorities, are set to agree contracts with suppliers to offer telehealth to patients in the next year. This will pave the way for the Department of Health to reach its target of offering the service to three million people by 2017.

The government has created a new group which will focus on reforming the UK's digital public services.

The government has been focused on making things ‘digital by default' since 2010 under former Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude.

His replacement, Matt Hancock, announced the creation of the ministerial group on government digital technology, which will focus on providing better access for citizens to government services - something that Whitehall has been working on for years - but will also focus on building a series of digital "platforms".

The government has failed to properly legislate for the increasing use of biometric data, leading to oversights and gaps in how it is managed, MPs have warned.

The Science and Technology Committee has voiced concerns about how information is collected, stored and used in its 'Current and future uses of biometric data and technologies' report.

According to the report by Tech Market View - a research analysis group, the government ICT sector saw a 2.3 per cent decline in 2011.

Whitehall departments and agencies are now expected to suffer the most drastic decline in market size over the next four years.

The government isn't doing enough to make the most of the data it has at its disposal, according to TechUK, the trade association that counts more than 850 companies as its members.

Sureyya Cansoy, a director at TechUK, said that different industries were at different points of their journeys in making the most out of data, with retail and transport ahead of other sectors.

GPS will be the contracting authority for services for customers such as local authorities, regional broadband consortia, maintained schools, free schools, academies, further education colleges and the skills sector.

The framework agreement, which is covered by the Government Procurement Agreement (GPA), will replace the Becta ICT services framework of October 2010.

The Government Procurement Service has put all planned IT frameworks "on pause" while it reviews their effectiveness.

"Our ICT framework agreements already remove excessive procurement procedures, but we want to make sure they are achieving the best savings and are easier and faster for both buyers and suppliers, including SMEs," said Cabinet Office parliamentary secretary Chloe Smith.

The government has teamed up with SME Ark Data Centres for a new joint-venture dubbed Crown Hosting Data Centres, which will provide public bodies with a physical space to host their servers and systems that aren't in the cloud.

Ark Data Centres will own a 75 per cent share of the new company, while the government will retain a 25 per cent stake in the business.

The report states that this action will save between £1.7bn and £1.8bn per year, most of which it attributes to the unnecessary cost of phone calls, or administration costs in face to face contact, and will take advantage of a UK population that is already 82 per cent online.

Maude made the comments at an event to highlight cyber skills that marked the third anniversary of the UK's Cyber Security Strategy. During the speech at the Institute for Chartered Accountants of England and Wales (ICAEW), Maude also announced measures to encourage people to acquire cyber security skills.

Boris Johnson’s first telephone call with Joe Biden in the White House reportedly included some joshing over which of them had first used the phrase ‘Build Back Better’. Whether it was the Prime Minister or the President, it is set to be the leitmotif of the global post-Covid recovery. Economies have been devastated, individuals have made enormous sacrifices, so it is right that every effort is made to improve people’s lives after the pandemic.

The Government recently set up a ‘Build Back Better Council’ to assist them with this task. Unlike previous No10 business councils, and fittingly for the urgency of the task, this council is both time limited to one year, and action orientated to the post-Covid recovery.

The Internet, they say, has changed everything. By giving us access to a world of information and services, we’re no longer tied to office hours, to queues, and to telephone calls.

Meanwhile we’ve grown accustomed to the ease of use that comes with services like social media, expecting the same level of design and responsiveness from any other provider.

More cities are looking to charge drivers for entering congested areas, which can help pay for municipal improvements in a low-risk way.

Several cities in the United Kingdom are looking to initiate smart projects to improve the efficiency of local services, enhance sustainability, and develop their competitiveness. Smart city developments improve the ‘livability’ of a city, helping support economic and business growth.

That would mean sharing not just back-office functions, such as payroll processing, across local authority boundaries, but perhaps pooling front-line services too.

Scotland's capital city, Edinburgh, is to deploy a brand new intelligent surveillance system, initially designed to combat crime and improve traffic flow. The idea is that over time, it should help the city adapt its policies to the habits of residents, while also helping it improve its carbon footprint.

The city of Edinburgh is aiming to earn smart city status with its brand new city surveillance and traffic management centre. In partnership with network security specialist North, the city is inaugurating a brand new, connected monitoring centre capable of processing real-time video surveillance data 24 hours a day.

The study, commissioned by St George's and Kingston hospital NHS trust, found that both trusts' in-house ICT systems were around 15 per cent more efficient than the average for comparable trusts as well as being "considerably"more efficient than any outsourcing alternative.

A new interactive map reveals the technologies that could one day power our cities – and help countries reach net zero targets.

Created by EON, the map shows multiple smart innovations, including landing pads for drone deliveries, hydrogen-fuelled buses and a football stadium powered by wind and solar energy.

The Internet of Things connected fridge is a myth and such a device wouldn't have any social benefit even if it did exist.

That's according to Dr Alison Powell, Assistant Professor of Department of Media and Communications at the London School of Economics and technology futurist, who was speaking at a recent discussion on internet privacy at the Royal Society.

The internet of things (IoT) is fast becoming a reality.

The combination of the UK’s developing edge computing platforms and high-speed, high bandwidth 5G and full fibre connectivity brings advanced artificial intelligence (AI) driven applications and services within reach of almost every business in the country. We now live in a world where machines interact with each other more than humans do.

Over the past 12 months, the software giant has been offering Java programming and skills training through its Oracle Academy initiative, which is used by secondary schools and higher education colleges to shape the content of their IT curriculums.