The Government Digital Service is a unit of the

Government of the United Kingdom ga, Rialtas a Shoilse gd, Riaghaltas a Mhòrachd , image = HM Government logo.svg , image_size = 220px , image2 = Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom (HM Government).svg , image_size2 = 180px , caption = Royal Arms , date_est ...

Cabinet Office The Cabinet Office is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for supporting the prime minister and Cabinet. It is composed of various units that support Cabinet committees and which co-ordinate the delivery of government object ...

tasked with transforming the provision of online public services. It was formed in April 2011 to implement the "Digital by Default" strategy proposed by a report produced for the Cabinet Office in 2010 called 'Directgov 2010 and beyond: revolution not evolution'. It is overseen by the Public Expenditure Executive (Efficiency & Reform). GDS is primarily based in the

Whitechapel Whitechapel is a district in East London and the future administrative centre of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is a part of the East End of London, east of Charing Cross. Part of the historic county of Middlesex, the area formed ...

Building, London. Its CEO is Tom Read.

GOV.UK

On 20 July 2010,

Directgov Directgov was the British government's digital service for people in the United Kingdom, which from 2004 provided a single point of access to public sector information and services. The site's portal was replaced (along with the Business Link p ...

, the citizen services website, was moved to the Cabinet Office from the

Department for Work and Pensions , type = Department , seal = , logo = Department for Work and Pensions logo.svg , logo_width = 166px , formed = , preceding1 = , jurisdiction = Government of the United Kingdom , headquarters = Caxton House7th Floor6–12 Tothill Stree ...

. From 1 April 2011 Directgov became part of the Government Digital Service, along with the BusinessLink website aimed at business users. On 13 September 2012, through a notice on the Directgov homepage, it was announced that the GOV.UK project, built by the Government Digital Service, would replace Directgov as the primary citizen website of the UK Government on 17 October 2012, after which both Directgov and BusinessLink would close.

"Digital by Default" strategy

The strategy was proposed in a report called "Directgov 2010 and beyond: revolution not evolution" prepared by Martha Lane Fox, the founder of lastminute.com. In an interview,

Francis Maude Francis Anthony Aylmer Maude, Baron Maude of Horsham, (born 4 July 1953) is a British Conservative Party politician and life peer who served as Minister of State for Trade and Investment from 2015 to 2016, having previously served as Minis ...

, minister with responsibility for GDS has spoken about "powerful oligopolies" and the reliance on a single supplier as a cause of high-profile failures in public sector IT, such as

NHS Connecting for Health The NHS Connecting for Health (CFH) agency was part of the UK Department of Health and was formed on 1 April 2005, having replaced the former NHS Information Authority. It was part of the Department of Health Informatics Directorate, with the rol ...

. GDS is intended to "drive service delivery to digital across government and provide support, advice and technical expertise for departments as they develop new digital delivery models". This strategy is focussed on the application of

Agile software development In software development, agile (sometimes written Agile) practices include requirements discovery and solutions improvement through the collaborative effort of self-organizing and cross-functional teams with their customer(s)/ end user(s), ...

and Lean software development methodologies, supplied primarily via

small and medium enterprises Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) or small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are businesses whose personnel and revenue numbers fall below certain limits. The abbreviation "SME" is used by international organizations such as the World Bank ...

rather than large suppliers. GDS has a Digital Advisory Board consisting of high-profile external experts, which meets bi-annually and advises the GDS on strategy. As of 2013, less than 2 years after GDS began, GDS had over 200 staff; by 2015 that number had risen to approximately 500.

Government as a platform

GDS has since mid 2013 promoted the concept of government as a platform, an idea first set out by

Tim O'Reilly Tim O'Reilly (born 6 June 1954) is the founder of O'Reilly Media (formerly O'Reilly & Associates). He popularised the terms open source and Web 2.0. Education and early life Born in County Cork, Ireland, Tim O'Reilly moved to San Francisco, C ...

in 2009 in an article in ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also r ...

''. Government as a Platform introduces "a new vision for digital government; a common core infrastructure of shared digital systems, technology and processes on which it’s easy to build brilliant, user-centric government services".

GOV.UK Verify

In 2011, GDS was given responsibility for setting cross-government standards for identity assurance, with the authority to approve, commission and accredit the identity component of any central government public service. GDS then designed and is building GOV.UK Verify. GOV.UK Verify is intended to act as a single sign on framework for government services like filing taxes or checking driving license information. The system allows the user to choose from a list of companies certified to verify their identity to government. These companies have to meet published standards for identity assurance. The

Infrastructure and Projects Authority The Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA) is the United Kingdom government's centre of expertise for infrastructure and major projects. The IPA sits at the heart of government, reporting to the Cabinet Office and HM Treasury. The core team ...

(IPA) conducted a review of Verify in July 2018, and found Whitehall departments were reluctant to continue funding the project. A subsequent report by the IPA recommended that the Gov.uk Verify identity assurance programme should be terminated.

Legacy

The GDS service has influenced similar projects elsewhere in the world, including the United States Digital Service, 18F, the Canadian Digital Service and the DigitalService4Germany.

Parliamentary review

In July 2018, the Science and Technology Select Committee announced that it would be carrying out a review into the work of GDS.

References

External links

*
Government Digital Service blog

Commons Select Committee review
{{Cabinet Office 2011 establishments in the United Kingdom Government agencies established in 2011 Government Digital Service