Quote “When we can successfully act as one, then we – the collective public sector – are the largest digital actor in the UK and one of the largest in the world.” David Knott, CTO, UK Government

One of the must-see presentations at September 2024’s Digital Government Expo held at ExCeL London was delivered by a pivotal figure in public sector digital transformation: the UK Government’s Chief Technology Officer (CTO), David Knott. Only a year into the role, he candidly summed up the challenges facing the public sector, but began by emphasising the huge value that can be realised if digital technology is adopted in the right way.

“I believe we have enormous potential energy in digital in the public sector,” he said. “Some of the things we have, others would kill for!” To illustrate the comment, he cited three major public sector positives:

• 100,000 digital and data professionals: “If we can find a way to enable these people to do their best work, it will give us astonishing power,” said Knott.
• Huge data assets “that organisations like Meta and Amazon would envy,” Knot commented. “They would probably offer us billions to buy them if they were for sale.”
• An early adopter attitude: Knott admitted this isn’t something that immediately springs to mind, but praised the public sector’s migration to the cloud as an example. “Some government organisations are 100% migrated, compared to a sector like finance which is only 25-30% in the cloud,” he explained. “We should be given credit for this achievement,” he said.

Underlining his point, Knott drew attention to the UK’s strong track record in digital innovation thanks to its thriving technology and research sector – “a place where global digital companies choose to be located”.

100,000 digital and data professionals work in the UK public sector.

The key constraints

Boasting all this talent and experience, backed by valuable data assets, what’s holding the public sector back digitally? We’ve summed up the key operational problem areas comprehensively in our article ‘Rising to the Public Sector Digital Challenge’. However, Knott took a broader view, identifying three fundamental constraints he said needed to be removed urgently:

1. Data and value sharing is practically impossible “People say it’s difficult to share information across departments, but this isn’t true,” said Knott. “It’s actually a massive understatement! In fact, it’s an act of heroic altruism to achieve this.”

Why? Because, as Knott explained, the system is optimised so that sharing is risky and extremely difficult. As a result, there are major problems to solve if you want to do it, such as identity, authentication, privacy, risk and access controls. Consequently, people try to do everything themselves, rather than borrow knowledge and assets from other areas of the public sector.

“So the 100,000 digital professionals are spending time doing things that their neighbours and other organisations are doing. Meanwhile, their neighbours and other organisations are doing the same,” said Knott. “If we discover a way to share, those 100,000 people can be deployed with even more impact.”

2. We build for decades, but only fund for years Knott pointed out that it might take years, quarters or months to build a system, but we now know that they can last for a very long time. This wasn’t always the case, of course, and according to Knott we’re still living in the past.

“Right now we’re failing to fund the ongoing maintenance and continual improvement that is an essential characteristic of good software that lasts a long time,” he said.

3. The cyber risk We live in a world of heightened geopolitical tension. There are adversaries who want to do us harm, whether script kiddies, criminal networks or state sponsored cyber attacks, we have to defend against them. And this is a far bigger problem for public sector organisations than their private counterparts due to the potential disruption to critical services and the threat to citizen data.

“We have become a digitally dependent nation,” said Knott, “If things stop working in a big way, our country would stop working in a big way. I like the fact that we’re moving to the cloud, that things are getting more abstracted and easier to use, and that we’re using more managed services. However, I worry about how we’re shifting to shared infrastructure across the country in an increasingly profound way, because I don’t think we’ve yet figured out what would happen on the day that it stops working.”

The way forward

Quote £15bn is spent annually on technology in the UK public sector

Despite these major barriers to successful public sector digital transformation, Knott was confident that they can be overcome, citing three key reasons for optimism.

1. The creation of a Digital Centre of Government This is a key mission of the current UK Government that Knott believes will be realised with the proposed bringing together of his department, the Central Digital and Data Office (CDDO), with the Government Digital Service (GDS) under the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT). “The intent to create a Digital Centre of Government is a powerful mission,” he said.

2. Embracing the whole public sector Expanding the focus of organisations like the CDDO from central government to the entire public sector brings the 100,000-strong technology workforce and annual £15bn technology spend within their remit. “When we can successfully act as one, then we – the collective public sector – are the largest digital actor in the UK and one of the largest in the world,” said Knott. “What we choose to do shapes markets, products, citizen services and the UK economy. So we have a lot of responsibility at our fingertips.”

3. Optimising emerging technologies Since taking on the role, Knott explained that he had met a lot of policy-making colleagues working on research projects involving satellites, space, AI, quantum physics and more. He views AI as a new paradigm shift in computing because it enables us to figure out how to know the answers when we don’t know the rules by deriving the rules from data modelling, adding that the third paradigm is quantum computing. “The good thing is that every time I look at one of these exciting technologies, I can find an area of the public sector where they are directly applicable,” he said.

The first step

Quote “Our data and research have enormous value as a source of insight that can be used to serve citizens better.” David Knott, CTO, UK Government

Knott chose the National Data Library as an example of how the public sector can start to realise its potential digital energy, which he views as “a fantastic idea and incredibly important”. A cornerstone of the Labour Government’s manifesto, it will bring together the public sector’s huge data assets and research programmes to help deliver data-driven services while maintaining and ensuring broad public benefit.

“Our data and research have enormous value as a source of insight that can be used to serve citizens better and gain a deeper understanding of the economy,” said Knott. “It would be great if we can unlock them so they are available for people to derive value from. The good news is that we have the momentum and the money to make this happen.”

This first bold step could be the catalyst the public sector needs. But, as Knott has admitted, key fundamental problems still need to be solved – and quickly. This means not only drawing on the public sector’s current valuable resources, but also on the vast skills and experience that exist within the highly innovative technology companies that call the UK their home – something Knott is clearly very proud of.

Partnering with the right external organisations like Mindera that understand the public sector and the problems it faces, and have practical experience solving them, can help accelerate change and realise Knott’s vision faster.

• Read our manifesto for change in the public sector [ADD LINK TO ‘RISING TO THE PUBLIC SECTOR CHALLENGE]
• Contact us now to discuss your specific public sector challenge. We’d love to help! [ADD CONTACT LINK]

Key takeaways

• UK Government CTO David Knott believes there is “enormous potential energy” in digital in the public sector. To illustrate the point he cited four major public sector positives, including its 100,000 digital and data professionals, huge data assets “that organisations like Meta and Amazon would envy,” and early adopter attitude.
• However, before this can be realised, three fundamental constraints must be overcome. These include the near impossibility of sharing data and value between departments and organisations, the failure to fund ongoing software and system maintenance and continual improvement, and the cyber risk.
• The planned establishment of a Digital Centre of Government makes Knott optimistic that we are going in the right direction, along with a shift by key departments to focus on the entire public sector rather than only central government, and the huge potential of emerging technologies to drive positive change.
• Knott sees the creation of the National Data Library as an example of how the public sector can start to realise its potential digital energy. A cornerstone of the Labour Government’s manifesto, it will bring together the public sector’s huge data assets and research programmes to help deliver data-driven services while maintaining and ensuring broad public benefit.

About the author

Richard Hilsley is Mindera's MD.