WIREDGOV NEWSLETTER ARCHIVE
NCSC; Is your business ‘at risk’? |
SMEs are being urged to check their readiness for cyber attacks by taking a new resilience test, launched by Business in the Community (BITC). The ‘Would You Be Ready?’ online test asks business leaders an array of questions to assess their preparedness for various incidents, and gives tips on how to safeguard their assets. The test focuses on 3 of the biggest issues that could affect businesses:
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NCSC: Check your readiness for a cyber attack', UK SMEs urged Business in the Community (BITC) NAO: Investigation - WannaCry cyber attack and the NHS NCA: International operation shuts down notorious cyber crime website NCSC supports industry drive towards common standards for secure communication NCSC: Protecting the UK from the increasing cyber threat - the next steps Building a (cyber) secure future CCC: Climate change likely to increase frequency & magnitude of severe flooding events |
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AI GDP gain counter-balance for Brexit? |
The UK's AI deal (published last week) will potentially add 10% to our GDP by 2030 if adoption is widespread, with a productivity boost of up to 30%. |
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DCMS: Margot James' statement on AI Sector Deal PC&PE; Adopt, adapt to, and ‘run’ with AI, or the UK faces economic decline AI: EC outlines a European approach to boost investment & set ethical guidelines techUK: UK Government AI Sector Deal – A blueprint for making the UK AI ready techUK AI Leaders | Kriti Sharma, VP, Artificial Intelligence, Sage DCMS: Tech sector backs British AI industry with multi-£m investment |
Editor’s choice of other ICT items of note: |
DCMS: Will you be ready for GDPR before 25 May? Ordnance Survey: Geovation reveals next wave of GeoTech and PropTech businesses |
NHS Digital; An alternative to ‘waiting at a red light’! |
A pilot system is now making it easier for GPs to understand the waiting times at hospitals for their patients. The e-traffic light system could help reduce hospital waiting times while offering patients a clearer choice of treatment and is set to be rolled out across the country after a successful NHS trial. A tweak to the GP referral system sees a red light appear against a hospital with longer waiting times while a green light shows those with spare capacity, meaning doctors can offer patients potentially quicker routes to treatment and help them make more informed choices. Results from two London trials have been promising – red lights reduced referrals to overbooked hospitals by nearly 40%, while green lights increased referrals to hospitals with available capacity by 14% this winter. The Capacity Alert system was developed after NHS England commissioned the Behavioural Insights Team (BIT) to come up with ways of helping hospital trusts ease pressure on services. Following the success of the trials in North East and South West London, BIT is now supporting the roll-out of the Capacity Alert system across the NHS in England. |
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NHS Digital: Patients get the green light for smarter choices after latest GP pilot - The Behavioural Insights Team Green means go: how to help patients make informed choices about their healthcare NHS Digital: Chief Nurse hails ‘great opportunity to use technology’ in new report Innovate UK: Oxehealth - Developing a better way to care for dementia patients ScotGov: Patients To Benefit From New Technology WAG: A Digital Vision for the Valleys NHS England; Not all is ‘doom & gloom’ in the NHS Technology at heart of a future ‘improved & cost efficient’ NHS Gauging where we are with a paper-free NHS – Paul Rice Innovate UK: New stress-reducing wristband 'doppel' reaches first backers |
SME Supplier Locator update... | ||
UK Government and public sector spend with SME’s is continually on the increase and by 2020, it is the stated intent of Cabinet Office that £1 of every £3 spent on government contracts goes to SME’s. The past 5 years have seen government make a priority of getting money through its supply chain into the hands of SMEs, by both setting targets and introducing new procurement mechanisms. Against this backdrop, the WiredGov Supplier Locator service has been developed specifically to embrace the SME Agenda and provide the ideal platform for SME’s to promote their services, solutions, accreditation and success stories directly to our ever increasing audience across all government and public sector verticals and Tier 1 suppliers. Recent arrivals to the SME Supplier Locator service include:
Click here to find out more. |
PC&PE; Is it worth complaining? |
PACAC says the Government needs to take action to improve the NHS complaints system, properly investigate cases of historic injustice & modernise the legislation for England's Ombudsman’s services. A new Public Administration & Constitutional Affairs Committee report says that the Parliamentary & Health Services Ombudsman is the final tier of complaint for people unhappy with their experience of the NHS in England and Government departments. Last year it received 31,444 new complaints, 88% about the NHS. PACAC's report on the PHSO's work in 2016-17 agrees with the PHSO's new Chief Executive that the time it has taken to investigate complaints is, "simply unacceptable". The Committee is also calling on the PHSO to improve how it supports often very distressed complainants, and to get better at showing how its investigations help improve NHS' services for future patients. However, many of the challenges the PHSO faces are made harder by the Government’s slow progress on reforms to the complaints system. PACAC therefore calls on the Government to accelerate the legislation to modernise the Ombudsman and on the Department of Health to improve local NHS complaints handling and to properly resolve the historic cases where families feel they are still being denied justice. |
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PC&PE: Government & Ombudsman must improve handling of NHS complaints Why is their (apparently) no ‘cure’ for this perennial NHS problem? Is the NHS just too big to improve? Strong leadership essential to delivering improvement in mental health hospital care NHS Confederation - 'We cannot go on like this' on clinical negligence costs Review into adverse events in maternity CQC report shows NHS not learning lessons from mistakes Ombudsman comments on parliamentary report into avoidable deaths in the NHS CQC calls for action to end missed opportunities to learn from patient deaths Ombudsman calls for culture change in how NHS investigates avoidable deaths |
EU News; Protection from the ‘guilty’ |
The EC is proposing a new law to strengthen whistleblower protection across the EU. Recent scandals such as Dieselgate, Luxleaks, the Panama Papers or the ongoing Cambridge Analytica revelations show that whistleblowers can play an important role in uncovering unlawful activities that damage the public interest and the welfare of our citizens and society. A new proposal will guarantee a high level of protection for whistleblowers who report breaches of EU law by setting new, EU-wide standards. The new law will establish safe channels for reporting both within an organisation and to public authorities. It will also protect whistleblowers against dismissal, demotion & other forms of retaliation and require national authorities to inform citizens and provide training for public authorities on how to deal with whistleblowers. All companies with more than 50 employees or with an annual turnover of over €10m will have to set up an internal procedure to handle whistleblowers' reports. All state, regional administrations and municipalities with over 10,000 inhabitants will also be covered by the new law. |
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Whistleblower protection: EC sets new, EU-wide rules GOV.UK: Whistleblowing for employees Whistleblowing: Guidance for Employers and Code of Practice 5 things you need to know about whistleblowing in the workplace ... New scheme launched to help NHS whistleblowers IPCC investigations into GMP whistleblower’s allegations concluded |
Editorial commentary; How many Referendums does it take to come to a final decision? |
Once again the media is full of ‘Remainers’ calling for more Brexit Referenda, but at what point do we come to the end of the process’? So come October 2018 the Remainers ‘force’ the government to hold another referendum on the terms offered by the EU for Brexit and the majority decision is to reject and to ‘renegotiate’ them. BUT what happens if the EU does not improve them or only offers to do so if we scrap our ‘Red Lines’ (as they have hinted; Michel Barnier on Brexit ), which overturns the result of the 2016 referendum? Surely we will then (in all fairness) need to have another referendum to ask ‘the people’ if they accept those re-negotiated terms, or want to stick to the previous offer, or go to WTO? One also has to wonder why the EU would offer us a ‘fair deal’ if they thought a bad one might ‘force us to stay in the EU! Looking to Scotland, one also wonders if the SNP would accept that the same principle would apply to another Scottish Independence referendum. What would Scottish voters say, if they found that the Scotland / rUK settlement terms left them with unable to fund their public services, with 90% of the bill for dismantling old oil rigs, etc, no naval ship-building industry and no official ‘use of sterling’? Perhaps they could then vote in a second / third referendum to stay in the Union! One wonders how the SNP would finance an independent Scotland without Barnett formula Perhaps we could even extend this ‘new Democracy’ to insist on a rerun of a General Election if the new Government proposed something that wasn’t within its manifesto? |
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Still a ‘hot topic’, with widely spread views, for those who put fingers to keyboard in order to ‘share their views’: |
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Brexit microsite (Information about the Article 50 process and our negotiations for a new partnership with the EU) DExEU: Robin Walker Speech at Community Outreach event Eurofi High-level Seminar 2018 Michel Barnier Speech DIT: Global Britain: the future of international trade DIT: Trade & tariffs: Brexit & beyond Cabinet Office: UK & Welsh governments reach agreement on EU Withdrawal Bill WAG agrees deal on Brexit Bill that respects devolution ScotGov: Withdrawal Bill amendments ‘undermine devolution’, says Minister DfT: Aviation industry welcomes Brexit roundtable PC&PE: 'Grave concerns' over department's approach to Brexit BfB: Project Fear Alive & Well BfB: The Caricature of Authoritarian Brexiteers and Liberal Remainers |
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