WIREDGOV

A new multi-£m Microsoft package will ensure NHS systems have the most up-to-date software with the latest security settings.  

The deal with Microsoft will ensure all health & care organisations are using the latest Windows 10 software with up-to-date security settings to help prevent cyber attacks.

Two items from the Government Digital Service on continually improving government ICT services.

Firstly. over the past 5 years, the GDS has helped save over £1bn by working with departments to identify better & cheaper ways to deliver IT and digital products & services.  One of the ways GDS have done this is through the spend controls process.  Jointly, they make sure that they’re getting the best value from anything they’re building or buying.

GDS have developed a new approach, which they have piloted with 4 departments and they are now ready to roll out the new spend controls process more widely.

Secondly, GOV.UK is relied on by millions of people every day to access vital services & information.  Material published on GOV.UK can move financial markets.  GOV.UK is a vital part of our national infrastructure.

A little while ago GDS learned that they had a few challenges with GOV.UK delivery.  As the programme matured, it was time to step back & review their ways of working.  By the beginning of last year, we noticed 4 problems that were affecting delivery:

• as deadlines could be flexible, sometimes work wasn’t stopping
• greater clarity was required on the most important problems
• research effort wasn’t always reflected in delivery
• we had too many potential single points of failure

The Public Accounts Committee finds Government still lacks data & systems to properly understand the crime, its victims & perpetrators - or how much money it spends tackling modern slavery.

The Home Office introduced an ambitious Modern Slavery Strategy in 2014, but it has taken too long to learn what works in the system, to understand the complexities of the crime and to turn the strategy & the Modern Slavery Act into an effective & co-ordinated approach across government.

The Remainers claim that we didn’t know  what we voted for in the 2016 referendum, so is it time for the UK Supreme Court to clarify what ‘type’ of Brexit the majority voted for!

After all, the evidence is clear that we were told by both ‘sides’ that Brexit would mean leaving the Single Market and EU Customs Area ('I'll pull UK out of the single market after Brexit' – POLITICO ~ BrexitCentral on Twitter: "Brexit means leaving the Single Market says ... ).

Why should an unelected & unrepresentative HoL be able to change the outcome of negotiations from leaving the EU to effectively remaining in the EU and still paying £bns to Brussels each year and for what REAL benefit?  We already have indications of how the EU will use its rules to put us at a disadvantage. (BfB:  The GALILEO Spat: an Object Lesson for Ministers ~ BEIS:  UK Space Agency leads work on options for independent satellite system )

‘Improving’ legislation does not mean reversing the intent of it when a referendum was intended to give the Government the people’s mandate to implement a course of action.  (Telegraph:  The Peers vs the People power grab confirms the thesis that led to Brexit)

We should also remember that it is a duty of the Government to negotiate treaties and, while Parliament may be expected to ratify them, it is the Government who will be held responsible for a ‘good’ or ‘bad’ treaty.

However, in the current situation, will the HoL take ‘responsibility’ for the NHS not receiving the expected extra £100m per week (of approx. net £154m p.w. currently going to Brussels) after December 2020?  Will the people be able to vote members of the HoL ‘out of office’ if they don’t like the outcome? (The UK's contribution to the EU budget - Commons Library briefing ... ~ IPPR:  NHS bill set to rise by more than £50bn by 2030 )

Returning to the issue of “we were not told when we voted”, one notes that the HoC & HoL ‘Remainers’ are not highlighting the fact that the EC proposes to ‘eliminate all rebates (UK - £5bn p.a.) and to reduce from 20% to 10% the amount Member States keep when collecting (EU} customs revenues’ in the 2021 – 2027 budget period. 

Staying in the EU would cost us at least an additional £5bn a year – and that is before including other proposed future EC revenue raising plans such as;

• 20% of the revenues from the Emissions Trading System
• A 3% call rate applied to the new Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base
• A national contribution calculated on the amount of non-recycled plastic packaging waste in each Member State (0.80 € per kilo).