Labour Wants To Bring Local Government To GOV.UK

The Labour Party has revealed its digital government reform would include moving the websites of local authorities onto the GOV.UK platform.

According to Labour, the move would save at least £8.6m a year, despite the idea being the subject being heavily debated, often negatively.

The announcement comes as the political party launches the 11^th interim report from its Zero-Based Review (ZBR) of every pound by government.

It claims that the Coalition government has missed its target to rebuild essential IT services on time, despite a “ballooning” budget for the Government Digital Service (GDS).

Labour’s report notes that just nine of the 25 digital by default exemplar services have successfully gone live, despite the March 2015 target.

Despite this, spending on GDS has increased from £9.7m in 2011/12 to £23.3m in 2013/14, with a spike in the last year with a spend of £7.9m.

The party claims it will tackles these issues in a number of ways, including by commissioning a review of data sharing in government to ensure Whitehall uses individuals’ data in a coherent and ethical manner.

Labour Party leader Ed Miliband had already promised last year that every adult will be able to own and have access to their public sector data should his party come into power.

Labour would also commit to the Coalition’s goal of using the expiry of major government contracts to save taxpayers’ money by breaking up IT services in smaller and more flexible components and making it easier for SMEs to win government contracts.

Labour To Build And Improve On Work Of Coalition

“Labour’s interim ZBR has identified failure by this government to meet digital targets despite huge increases in the budget of the Government Digital Service,” claimed its Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury Chris Leslie.

“Despite spending on the GDS ballooning [Cabinet Office Minister] Francis Maude has failed to deliver on his promise of 25 exemplar services being live by this March,” added Labour’s Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office Lucy Powell.

“His plans for digital inclusion miss out those most hard to reach and his focus on transactional services means that he has failed to harness the full potential of digital public services in the hands of the public.

“Labour has a better plan for Britain’s future. The next Labour government will champion transformed digital services for all, improving the experience of public service users.

“We will also generate savings for the taxpayer by rooting out unnecessary duplication and waste by working in partnership across the public sector to deliver a joined-up digital agenda,” Powell claimed.

© 24N.biz