UK's Top Civil Servant Says GOV.UK Is Way More Than 'Just A Website'

The country's top civil servant says the Civil Service is modernising at a fast pace thanks to digital technology.

New Head of the Civil Service Sir Jeremy Heywood, in a just-published blog post, stresses that the changes are much more about the GOV.UK website cosnolidation process, whereby what were literally hundreds of older sites are being collapsed into one super UK HMG presence.

Instead, he claims, "Government is adopting new ideas and new ways of working to make everything we do better for users, and more efficient."

Technology "and the Internet in particular," he says, are key - something the world of business has long understood but which Whitehall is finally catching up with."

As proof, Heywood points to the GOV.UK Transformation page, which he says is showcasing "how some of the biggest services the Civil Service runs are being transformed for the digital age [such as] services that let you register to vote, apply for Carer’s Allowance, renew a patent, or book a prison visit – these are among the 6 services that have completed the transformation process and are now live."

GOV.UK 'Not A Website'

Heywood states that, "We do not want to continue running government as a series of disjointed silos."

That's why we should start seeing GOV.UK as more than just a website, but more of a government 'platform,' a tool for helping cement the changes needed.

"I believe that thanks to the excellent work of the Government Digital Service and the increasing digital capability within each individual department, the British Civil Service is already at the cutting edge of applying digital technology to public service delivery.

"But we now need to take this to the next level, and apply the same principles and techniques in policy design," he believes.

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