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Minister sounds support for GDS

18/08/15

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Matthew Hancock has blogged for the Government Digital Service but stayed neutral on the future of Government as a Platform

Minister for the Cabinet Office Matthew Hancock has declared his support for the Government Digital Service, but stopped short of endorsing the future of the Government as a Platform programme.

A GDS blogpost by Hancock (pictured) follows speculation that, following the decision by government chief digital officer Mike Bracken to leave the post, the future of the group is uncertain and that the policy to develop more common technology services for government could be dropped.

The minister says that he’s a “huge supporter of GDS’s mission” and that it is “at the digital core of government”. He also talks about Stephen Foreshew-Cain, the new executive director of GDS, and Liam Maxwell, chief technology officer, being the right people to deliver its next phase.

Non-committal

But his reference to Government as a Platform, says it is “changing the core infrastructure” but says nothing about its future.

Instead he makes a more reserved comment that “there’s a lot more to do to cement this work and embed modern digital technology and data throughout government”.

While the comments are on a par with the generalised statements often made by ministers, observers inside and outside of government could have been looking for a more direct reference to the future of Government as a Platform. There have recently been reports of resistance to the programme in the upper reaches of Whitehall.

 

 

Picture from gov.uk, Open Government Licence v3.0

 

 

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