Government must let go of Britain's data, says report

Government IT should put users back at the centre of systems, in order to improve services and cut costs, according to a new report from a right-wing think tank.

Echoing the Conservative Party’s calls to scrap big databases like the National Identity Register, the Centre for Policy Studies has produced a report saying the government must ditch its Transformational Government plans and abandon the idea of centralised IT projects.

Transformational Government is an idea that grew out of the 2006 Varney report, which has lead to the current government trying to tie together services, databases and IT to improve public services. The Centre for Policy Studies report – unsubtly called “It’s Ours: why we, not government, must own our data” – has called such systems a failure.

Citing a previous study, author Liam Maxwell claimed that only 30 per cent of such IT projects succeed, and as such, the government should stop rolling out “expensive and failing centralised IT projects.”

Maxwell wrote that smaller, localised projects were more successful. “This is the approach that has been increasingly effective in the private sector,” he claimed.

For example, he suggested Britons use private, third-party services such as HealthVault or Google Health to hold records, rather than develop an NHS database – which is currently happening as part of the £12 billion National Programme for IT.

He admitted that approach does not work for all government databases, saying: “it is not proposed, for example, to allow criminals to control their police records.”

Cost savings?

Decentralising records would require open standards in file formats, but would save as much as 50 per cent in costs, while boosting flexibility, security and privacy, he claimed.

And, smaller systems would not require the massive investment that large-scale projects require, Maxwell said. He noted that IT spend across central and local government will hit £16.5 billion this year, with the government spending £300 per person on IT – compared to the £10 to £60 spent by Google, MSN and banks.

Some 60 per cent of that spending goes to just nine firms, including HP/EDS, BT and Fujitsu Services, he noted.

What to do?

Maxwell called on the government to put data back in the control of citizens, comparing it to Amazon. If people want a book, they must make sure their address and credit card details – private, key data – is accurate and up-to-date.

Amazon can communicate that to its partners, but people can go in and change it or delete it when they wish. “Amazon is happy for the person who makes the changes to personal data to be the person that knows about that person best – us,” Maxwell noted.

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