Non-Compliant Councils Won’t Lose PSN Access

The Cabinet Office has revealed it has no plans to cut councils off from the Public Services Network (PSN) - despite the fact that around 20 have failed to meet the security compliance deadline.

Although the Department threatened removal from the network as a consequence for non-compliance, John Stubley, PSN operations director, has revealed to the UK press that this will not be the case.

A total of 588 authorities are required to join PSN, so it is a minority that are now yet compliant and the majority of those still making the move have agreed strategies to meet requirements.

Instead of issuing penalties, the Cabinet Office is working with the struggling local authorities – only two organisations have yet to agree plans to achieve standards agreed with the Department, according to Stubley.

He said that by developing and agreeing plans with the Department, no local authorities are at risk from being cut off and the original deadline will not be enforced.

Cabinet Office Changing Attitudes

This move represents a turnaround in the Cabinet Office’s attitude towards compliance as its previous approach was criticised.

In January, the Department’s COO Stephen Kelly admitted his mistakes in the tough deadline approach, claiming that he acknowledged concerns.

Despite this, as recently as late March, Stubley was claiming that non-compliant organisations would not be trusted by the rest of the public sector.

At the Local Public Services ICT Summit, he mentioned that the Cabinet Office was in discussions with struggling councils, but this didn’t decrease their risk of being cut off from PSN.

© 24N.biz