Online banking; online shopping; online gaming; online dating; and now online Government. With many aspects of 21st century UK life having a major web-based element to them, the Government has recognised the benefits and urgency to follow suit. However, this is likely to have a significant impact on the wider government workforce, as online efficiencies lead to less dependence on offline resources.
The move towards greater efficiency and the Government’s shared services agenda was given a major push by the Comprehensive Spending Review 2007 (CSR 07), which included a five per cent budget cut in real terms, over the next three years for the Treasury and Cabinet Office.
CSR 07 set out the UK Government’s priorities and spending plans for the next three years and how the Chancellor of the Exchequer plans to use increased public spending as it rises from £589bn in 2007-08 to £678bn in 2010-11.
Essentially, the review demands that all Government departments must improve delivery of citizen-centric public services through the innovative use of new technology while continually reviewing efficiency, including how to maximise capability with a reduced resource pool. Further civil service reductions are inevitable with the wider implementation of the ‘shared services agenda’.
Addressing 21st century citizens’ needs
Demographically, today’s citizens are changing; they are more computer-literate and happy to be served online. Just as millions of people rarely go into banks these days, because of online banking facilities, the Government hopes to modernise its support infrastructure to shift the focus from face-to-face contact to online ‘transactions’.
In future, Central Government will look to work more closely with local government offices to deliver, using the local government infrastructure to service Central Government citizen touch points.
Currently, the most expensive element of serving citizens is face-to-face contact through regional offices all over the UK. Through the development of more online ‘tools’, citizens will be provided with a self serve facility, thus reducing dependence on the existing regional office workload. Consequently, agencies will be enabled to combine regional office capabilities, providing technological support to deal with issues from several departments.
Achieving all this, however, is highly dependant on technology and changing business processes.
Tangible savings and benefits
The benefits of this shift in emphasis are numerous:
- By developing automated online citizen-centric processes, the public, who are increasingly demanding and time-driven, will be better serviced through a faster turnaround
- Central Government is likely to generate further significant efficiency savings through the consolidation of departments’ regional offices
- Brown site land, which is no longer needed for offices, can be made available for ‘social’ housing
- With the more ‘mundane’ processes being dealt with online, jobs will become more interesting, as staff are cross-trained and freed up to do more interesting and challenging work.
Building on previous self-service success
Money Claim Online (MCOL) – Her Majesty's Courts Service Internet-based service for claimants and defendants – has dramatically transformed the way people can make financial civil court actions. Individuals, businesses, lawyers and government departments can self serve and process actions online, at a low cost, resulting in MCOL becoming the UK’s largest operating civil court. In 2004-05, it issued 55,000 claims – more than any local county court.
While efficiency has been achieved by reducing dependence on traditional courts, thus freeing up time to deal with larger cases, MCOL has also generated other significant benefits. It has encouraged small bad debts – which were damaging the economy – to be pursued, and small businesses to be protected. The resulting reduction in bad debt then helps strengthen the UK economy.
This model is one that the Government should look to build on, by adopting similar approaches for other Government departments that could also generate efficiency savings.
As central Government becomes more open, it is also facing the paradoxical challenge of implementing wider and more stringent security practices to ensure the security of UK citizens, information, interests and infrastructure.
Countering the terrorist threat
Aside from addressing the Government’s efficiency agenda, CSR 07 outlined plans to significantly boost investment in homeland security to deal with the “severe and sustained” threat of terrorism.
The fundamentalist nature of 21st century terrorists, who are willing to die for their causes, means that countering this threat is increasingly reliant on better intelligence. This demands investment in technology and resource, especially as the terrorist threat is increasingly technologically-based.
The importance of this investment is obvious when one considers that it is less than five years until the Olympic Games comes to London. The size of this international event and the profile it generates identifies it as a major potential target for both terrorist atrocities and criminal cyber attacks.
Collectively, the Security Service (MI5), the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) and Government Communications Headquarters have a combined budget that will rise from £2.5bn in 2007-08 to £3.5bn in 2010-11 – an average of 9.6 per cent a year over the next three years.
Since 9/11, employment levels in counter-terrorism, intelligence and resilience have risen sharply, with M15 going from 1,800 staff in 2001, to 3,200 this year. Although 300 more staff are likely to join the agency by the end of this financial year, recruitment is likely to stabilise, with more emphasis and financial resource focusing on supporting technology. This is to address the increasingly data intensive world we live in. As negative elements of society make use of evermore sophisticated technology, the real challenge is to be able to extract nuggets of information from the sea of data that mankind generates, and then derive real intelligence from this information in a timely manner.
Defending UK interests abroad
As well as boosting investment in homeland security, CSR 07 outlined the Government’s commitment to addressing the challenges faced by the Ministry of Defence (MoD), including increased funding for the operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, the enhancement of conventional capability across the Armed Forces such as future Aircraft Carrier (CVF), and funding the renewal of Britain’s nuclear deterrent.
By confirming the Government’s pledge to such expensive, large-scale programmes and its continued funding of the two theatres of operation, CSR 07 puts greater pressure on those responsible for defining the MoD’s future Defence Programme, and its upcoming Programme Review (PR08), to ensure they make correct decisions on what, when and how capability is delivered to the UK armed forces.
The ability to do this will be strongly influenced by Through Life Capability Management (TLCM), which looks to ensure decision-makers choose the most effective capability decisions, as defined by all Defence Lines of Development, and prioritise the development of each individual programme to deliver best value overall capability to the Front Line Commands.
Finally, as with all Government departments, CSR 07, alongside the soon–to-be updated Defence Industrial Strategy (DIS), will help define and fund an improved UK military acquisition infrastructure that has the ability to deliver TLCM with reduced timescales and costs.
Conclusion
Looking to the immediate and longer-term future, CSR 07 is likely to have several significant impacts on companies such as VEGA.
As the era of auditing and measurement gains momentum, the UK Government is likely to seek industry expertise and support to ensure new, improved citizen-centric services are delivered in the most cost-effective and efficient manner.
Amongst the support services that will be in demand are technology integration; procurement support; advice on new technology and technological threats; understanding complexity and the interoperability of systems; project and programme management; risk assessment; and information assurance.
VEGA’s extensive knowledge and experience of working alongside its UK Government and Defence sector clients, along with its qualification on all the major Government procurement catalogues, such as Catalist, providess the Group with a strategic advantage to support the initiatives funded by CSR 07 as it begins to manifest itself, and Gordon Brown’s team focuses on its vision of a citizen-centric and secure future.
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