Social Care Needs to Accelerate Tech Adoption
Adult social care leaders in the UK are urging rapid adoption of technology‑enabled care (TEC) after a PA Consulting and TEC Services Association report. The survey of 79 decision‑makers shows 78% want to accelerate TEC programmes and 96% would redesign care if TEC enabled prevention. However, only 16% of staff have strong TEC understanding, and 77% cite data integration and funding gaps as major obstacles. Local authorities spent £29.4 billion (≈$37 billion) on adult social care last year, underscoring the urgency to improve efficiency.
Data Is Key to Better Decision Making - DBT
The Department for Business and Trade’s data analysis team is central to modernising decision‑making across the department. By cleaning inconsistent device inventories, they enabled a smooth Windows 11 migration, delivering dashboards that matched users to offices and identified laptops for replacement....
OS Backed Emergency Response System to Go Nationwide
The Multi‑Agency Incident Transfer (MAIT) system, built on Ordnance Survey data, is being deployed to every fire and rescue service in England, expanding from the 27 already live users to all 44 by the end of March. MAIT standardises address...
ICO Warns Facial Recognition Technology Must Create Trust
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is intensifying scrutiny of police facial‑recognition systems to ensure they meet data‑protection standards and retain public trust. Research shows the public worries most about accuracy (only 53 % confidence), officer training and bias safeguards. Audits of...
Defra Adopts Content First Approach to Digital Forms
Defra has shifted to a content‑first methodology for its digital form design, prioritizing narrative and structure before visual layout. By drafting plain‑text content and testing it with users early, the team cut prototype cycles and enhanced accessibility for screen‑reader users....
Skills England Develops AI Apprenticeship
Skills England has launched an 18‑month AI and automation practitioner apprenticeship to bridge the UK’s digital skills gap. The programme, co‑designed with employers and major tech firms, trains workers to spot AI‑driven efficiency gains while ensuring safe, bias‑free, and compliant...
SAAS Appoints Valtech and Appian for Modernisation
Student Awards Agency Scotland (SAAS) has hired Valtech, with Appian as its platform partner, to replace its ageing core systems and launch a phased service modernisation through 2030. The initiative will deliver a new, scalable case‑management and digital service environment...
Kent County Council Starts Major Tech Tender
Kent County Council has launched a four‑year framework agreement worth up to £900 million (approximately $1.1 billion) to provide multi‑functional devices, digital solutions and inkjet printers to public‑sector organisations. The procurement is split into three lots: Lot 1 (up to £420 million/$512 million) covers printers,...
DESNZ Invests £45 Million in AI Supercomputer
The UK Department for Energy Security and Net Zero is allocating £45 million (about $58 million) to build Sunrise, a 1.4 MW AI‑accelerated supercomputer slated to go live in June 2026 at the UKAEA Culham campus. Delivering up to 6.76 exaflops, Sunrise will become the...
MHCLG Launches Local AI
The UK Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has launched Local AI, a dedicated team to help councils adopt artificial intelligence responsibly. The initiative targets two pillars: creating reusable AI tools and strengthening data quality, ethics, and security foundations....
Digital Weight Management Passes Beta Test
The NHS England Digital Weight Management Programme has passed its beta assessment with a green rating on all 14 evaluation criteria. It offers a 12‑week, app‑based behavioural intervention for adults with obesity and long‑term conditions, accessible via smartphone, tablet or...
Stockport and Tameside Rollout New EPR Platform
Stockport NHS Foundation Trust and Tameside and Glossop Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust have signed ten‑year contracts with Altera Digital Health to deploy a unified electronic patient record (EPR) platform. The new system will replace a patchwork of legacy applications,...
AI Acclerates Migration of Local Land Charges Records
HM Land Registry has launched an AI‑driven tool to speed the migration of Local Land Charges (LLC) records from councils to a central register. In a pilot with Newham, the system digitised textual records in four weeks using four staff,...
East Anglian Fire Services Cloud Platform Goes Live
Fire and rescue services in Norfolk, Suffolk and Hertfordshire have launched Motorola Solutions' cloud‑based Guardian Hub command centre, linking 100 stations and 2.5 million residents. The platform centralises 999 call handling and dispatch while still allowing each service to operate independently,...
Hospital Stays Cut with Digital Planning Tool
Herefordshire and Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust has slashed the average length of stay by five days after rolling out the Alcidion Miya Precision digital patient‑flow platform across seven community hospitals. The first phase introduced digital journey boards that...
New Education Estates Strategy Goes Digital
The UK Department for Education has unveiled a ten‑year Education Estates Strategy backed by £38 billion (≈$48.6 billion) to modernise school and college buildings. Central to the plan is the new Manage Your Education Estate digital service, giving schools self‑assessment tools and...
South West ICBs Adopt New Dental Referral Platform
Seven South West Integrated Care Boards will launch the NEC Rego electronic referral service in 2026, extending to Dorset in 2027. The platform will handle about 160,000 dental referrals annually across 12 pathways, covering 5.5 million residents, 900+ practices and 1,000...
Teachers Need AI Education
University of Reading lecturer Georgia Aspinox warns that many trainee teachers enter the classroom with little understanding of artificial intelligence, despite its growing presence in schools. She highlights the Department for Education’s new AI training resources as a practical solution,...
SAVVI Data Pilot to Identify Vulnerable Residents Earlier
A £1.1 million government‑funded pilot will test the SAVVI and Open Referral UK (ORUK) data standards in Greater Manchester Combined Authority and Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council. The standards aim to spot early signs of vulnerability—such as housing instability or health...
Adult Social Care Providers Are Not Using Care Technologies
A Department of Health and Social Care survey shows 27% of adult social care providers in England still use no care technologies, while 73% have adopted at least one tool. Monitoring sensors are the most common (43%), followed by personal...
Home Office Renames Digital, Data and Tech Division
The Home Office has renamed its Digital, Data and Technology division to Home Office Digital, signalling a shift from a support function to a core operational pillar. Chief Digital, Data and Technology Officer Rob Thompson highlighted milestones such as 48‑hour...
User Feedback Helps StatsWales to Evolve
Six months after its autumn launch, Wales' new StatsWales open data service has rolled out a suite of user‑driven enhancements. A searchable interface and refined filtering now let users locate and slice datasets faster, while the previous limit on simultaneous...
Get Adult Social Care Data Service Passes First Test
The Department of Health and Social Care’s Get Adult Social Care Data service has cleared its alpha assessment, meeting all 14 Government Digital Service standards. The platform consolidates data from multiple sources to aid local authorities, care providers, researchers, and...
Defra Backs Seven Farming Space Age Projects
Defra and Innovate UK awarded £560,000 to seven UK businesses to develop space‑based and AI solutions for agriculture. Each company receives £80,000 in Space Commercialisation Credits plus business and technical assistance from the Satellite Applications Catapult. Projects include digital farm...
HMRC Select New QA and Testing Partner
HMRC has awarded a £38.8 million contract to Scrumconnect for digital testing and quality assurance services. The five‑year deal will see Scrumconnect support the Service Validation and Testing function, ensuring new and updated HMRC digital services meet reliability, security and performance...
New National Timing Centre to Protect Critical Services
The UK government is allocating £180 million to build a National Timing Centre (NTC) that will safeguard critical services such as mobile networks, banking and emergency response from GNSS disruptions. Led by the National Physical Laboratory, the NTC will employ atomic...
First NHS Hospitals Roll Out Ambient Voice Tech
University Hospitals of Leicester and University Hospitals of Northamptonshire have become the first NHS organisations to jointly deploy AI‑powered Ambient Voice Technology (AVT). The rollout introduces Accurx Scribe for over 10,000 clinicians, automatically capturing consultations and drafting notes, summaries, and...
Tees Valley Portal to Boost Local Economy
The Tees Valley Business Board has launched a new supplier database designed to connect local firms with major project contracts and national or international investors. Companies can opt‑in by providing basic contact and service information, allowing the portal to match...
East Sussex County Council Recruit New CDIO
East Sussex County Council has appointed Stephen Docherty as its new chief digital and information officer. Docherty moves from a healthcare background, having served as CIO for South London and Maudsley NHS Trust and led digital initiatives at Microsoft and...
MHCLG Overhauls Open Data Platform
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) is overhauling its Open Data Communities (ODC) platform to meet modern open‑data standards. A new cloud‑hosted URL will improve reliability, while the Indices of Multiple Deprivation will be published in CSVW...
Treasury to Become Agile with Coaching From Red Badger
HM Treasury has awarded a £17,000 contract to Red Badger to create an Agile Practice Service for its Corporate Centre Group. The three‑month engagement, running from 12 January to 31 March 2026, will deliver a standardized Agile model, toolkit and light‑touch standards. Red...
Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Authority Launches Digital Badge
The Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority has launched a digital‑badge scheme to help young people showcase skills to employers. Partnering with the Region of Learning, the programme targets NEET individuals and embeds badges in the Youth Guarantee and regional internships....
CalMac Ferries Looks to Welcome New Digital Partner
Scotland’s publicly owned CalMac Ferries has launched a £7.5 million, five‑year tender to find a strategic digital partner for its customer‑facing platform. The existing system, built on the open‑source Umbraco CMS and hosted on Microsoft Azure, supports three websites and mobile...
Data-Led Wind Energy Programme Pioneered by Natural England
The POSEIDON project, led by Natural England, is creating the UK’s most comprehensive marine dataset to support offshore wind development while protecting biodiversity. Over two years the team conducted aerial surveys of 54,000 seabirds and 5,000 marine mammals and collected...
Major Digital Projects in Scotland Have Comms and Stakeholder Shortfalls
An analysis of 277 Scottish digital project reviews from 2017‑2025 found that communication and stakeholder engagement shortcomings surface in roughly 30% of reports, despite representing only 4% of the 2,317 recommendations. The Digital Assurance Office highlighted four recurring gaps—insufficient stakeholder...
West Yorkshire's Smart Travel App Continues to Grow
West Yorkshire’s MCard Mobile app has reached its ten‑millionth ticket sold since its 2020 launch, reflecting rapid adoption of digital fare solutions. The app has been downloaded over 347,000 times and recorded more than 4.5 million bus‑journey scans in 2025 alone....
Shared Services Strategy Set to Under Perform
The National Audit Office warns that the UK Government’s Shared Services Strategy is unlikely to meet its £1 billion savings target due to governance flaws, funding uncertainty, and IT integration problems. The programme, intended to standardise finance, payroll and HR across...
NHS England Urges Patients to Use App Notifications
NHS England launched a “Tap the NHS App” campaign urging patients to enable push notifications for appointment reminders. A Censuswide survey found 12% of respondents forgot appointments and 11% arrived late, amounting to an estimated 16 million missed GP visits in...
Capita Win Long-Term Deal to Manage Synergy Shared Services
Capita has been awarded the £370 million Synergy Business Process Services contract, a multi‑department deal covering the Department for Work and Pensions, Ministry of Justice, Home Office and Defra. The agreement, spanning up to ten years with optional extensions, will see...
City of London Corporate Seeks Future Ready Partner
The City of London Corporation has launched a £2.4 million Future Ready Programme aimed at building a financially sustainable, digitally enabled organization. It is seeking a strategic partner to guide project management, R&D, consultancy and public‑relations services. Suppliers must complete an...
Post Office Awards Non-Horizon Modernisation Work to Accenture
The Post Office has awarded a £45 million three‑year contract to Accenture to modernise its back‑office IT applications, covering finance, HR, data management and process automation via cloud solutions. The agreement, running from 1 April 2026 to 30 June 2029, excludes the controversial Horizon system....
GDS Reveals Benefits of Using UPRNs
Unique Property Reference Numbers (UPRNs) are permanent 12‑digit codes that uniquely identify every addressable location in the UK. By providing a stable identifier, they eliminate inconsistencies in address data, enabling seamless linking across public and private datasets. The Open UPRNs...
Home Office Signs £49 Million Biometric Deal
The UK Home Office has awarded Indian AI firm Mastek a five‑year, £49 million contract to manage and upgrade its biometric infrastructure, including the Biometrics Services Gateway and the National DNA Database. The deal includes optional two‑year extensions and covers specialist...
GDS Sets Out the Principles for Secure Personal Data
The UK Government Digital Service (GDS) released the “Principles for Securing Personal Data in Government Services,” a ten‑point framework to help departments share personal data securely and comply with the Data Protection Act 2018 and UK GDPR. Developed by the Office of...
ADR Awards Data Research Funding for Home Nations
Administrative Data Research UK (ADR UK) has secured £168 million from UKRI to broaden secure access to administrative data across England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. England will receive £66.2 million, while the other three nations each obtain roughly £25‑£26 million. The funding will...
Grant Process Streamlined by MHCLG
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) launched a new digital grant service in December 2025, comprising two linked platforms – Deliver grant funding for teams and Access grant funding for recipients. Built on a single codebase, the system...
Historic England Enhances Spatial Data Capability
Historic England has awarded ESRI a £889,005 contract for a Vertical Application System under the Crown Commercial Service’s Vertical Applications Solutions framework (Lot 3). The system will boost the agency’s ability to manage and analyse spatial data across heritage, housing, environment...
AI to Develop Metals with Enhanced Durability for Naval Vessels
The Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) and Swansea University are using artificial intelligence and machine learning to create metal alloys that resist corrosion in harsh marine environments. Backed by a £42.5 million Defence Materials Centre of Excellence partnership that includes...
TecSAFE Is Proving a Safety Net for Vulnerable Women
TecSAFE, a Home Office‑backed mobile safeguarding service, is now deployed by 39 police forces across the UK, offering victims of violence a discreet way to summon help and share their real‑time location. The platform supports communication in 43 languages, reflecting...
DVSA Digitises Individual Vehicle Approval
The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) launched the Manage Your Vehicle Testing platform, a fully digital replacement for the legacy Technical Application System. The rollout, completed by June 2025, eliminated PDF uploads, introduced online payment and reusable templates, and allowed...