Government’s streamlined messaging service to save taxpayer £175m

26 Sep 2019 01:35 PM

The GOV.UK Notify system has been used more than half a billion times since its launch four years ago.

• Government’s Notify messaging service saves people time and hassle, reducing the need for chasing information and making time consuming calls to call centres
• Notify is on track to save taxpayers an average of £35m a year over the next 5 years
• Since its launch, the service has been used to send more than 500 million messages

A system designed to make it easier for people to communicate with the Government has sent out more than half a billion messages since it was launched less than four years ago - and is on track to save taxpayers £35m a year.

The GOV.UK Notify system allows public sector bodies and local authorities to send people important messages, ranging from council tax reminders to details of doctors appointments.

By reaching out directly with important information and cutting out the need for people to phone call centres or chase up information, it is set to produce savings of £175m over the next 5 years - a saving equivalent to the construction of 8 new secondary schools.

Minister for the Cabinet Office, Oliver Dowden, yesterday said:

Notify is a great example of how the government is using technology to make people’s lives easier and save money.

This allows us to invest more in the public’s priorities, with the savings from this initiative alone equivalent to the cost of building 8 new secondary schools.

More than 1,200 services across central government, local government, and the wider public sector use the Notify service.

Minister for Implementation, Simon Hart, yesterday said:

By working smarter, our Notify system has led to people having half a billion fewer phone calls, letters or reminders over the last four years - generating huge savings in time, money and stress for them.

The organisations with the highest number of services using Notify are:

• Cabinet Office
• Ministry of Justice
• Home Office
• Ministry of Defence
• Department for Education
• Department for Work & Pensions
• HM Courts and Tribunals Service

The work of the team that runs GOV.UK Notify has previously been recognised with the Operational Excellence Award in the 2018 Civil Service Awards.

Pete Herlihy, who leads the Notify team at the Government Digital Service yesterday said:

Notify is designed to meet the messaging needs of service teams right across the public sector. It’s brilliant to see it so widely adopted and a great example of meeting users’ needs at scale with a small diverse team.