Policy paper

Action 11: Cabinet Office will lead in the definition and delivery of a new suite of common technology platforms which will underpin the new generation of digital services

Updated 16 January 2015

This was published under the 2010 to 2015 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government

This action forms part of the Government Digital Strategy.

Here’s how departments are responding to this action:

The Attorney General’s Office

Departmental digital strategy commitments (December 2012)

The Law Officers’ departments support the use of common platforms and, where they are not already in use, will move to them where there are opportunities. The Crown Prosecution Service has been leading in this area, working across the criminal justice system to develop a common platform to share case information throughout the chain.

Progress during 2013

Law Officers’ departments have a number of ongoing projects that are looking to take advantage of shared platforms. The Attorney General’s Office (AGO) is promoting the adoption and use of shared platforms within the Law Officers’ departments.

Planned activities in 2014

AGO will continue to encourage the adoption and use of shared platforms within the Law Officers’ departments.

Progress during 2014

AGO continued to work with Government Digital Service (GDS) and other departments in the development of common platforms to support the way we provide information and services.

Planned activities in 2015

AGO will continue to encourage the adoption and use of shared platforms within the Law Officers’ departments.

Cabinet Office

Departmental digital strategy commitments (December 2012)

Through GDS the department will develop a range of common platforms to support redesigned digital services. Internally, it is exploring ways to create flexible and interoperable departmental IT to support flexible, innovative, collaborative, and effective working.

Progress during 2013

Cabinet Office is leading the way with a new approach to flexible, integrated IT services for the department. The technology transformation programme started in September 2013 and will be running through 2014 to deliver a set of disaggregated technology devices and services with a scalable support structure. The programme is user needs driven rather than procurement-led, and broad user needs analysis work is underway. In parallel, user trials of new devices and services are going live in December 2013.

Planned activities in 2014

Cabinet Office users will be migrated to a new technology framework in an iterative approach during 2014.

Progress during 2014

The Cabinet Office technology transformation team moved Cabinet Office and Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) desktop applications onto cloud-based platforms, within a new hosting environment. Cabinet Office made new, faster wifi available throughout the department. Improved connectivity and simpler authentication based on the revised government security classifications has made it easier for staff to work in more flexible and mobile ways.

Planned activities in 2015

Cabinet Office will move an additional 1,300 users on to the new technology services. These will include users from the expanding Crown Commercial Service and users in Cabinet Office who are moving down from Confidential to OFFICIAL.

A new in-house Digital and Technology Department will be in place in the Cabinet Office to support and continually improve digital and technology services.

Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

Departmental digital strategy commitments (December 2012)

Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) welcomes the support from Cabinet Office and Government Digital Service (GDS) on common technology platforms. An effective and customer-centric approach to identity assurance for businesses will help with digitisation of business services.

Progress during 2013

BIS has continued to work with GDS in developing a cross-government approach to identity assurance. Companies House, for example, has supported GDS in developing the Identity Assurance Good Practice Guide and is also successfully working with GDS and HMRC on one of the identity assurance alpha projects. Skills Funding Agency is similarly working with GDS to meet their identity assurance requirements for the National Careers Service.

Planned activities in 2014

BIS will continue to work with GDS and across other government departments to support development of a government-wide identity assurance solution for both individuals and business, ensuring outcomes are shared across the departments and partner organisations.

Progress during 2014

BIS promoted the identity assurance platform to exemplar and partner organisations represented on the BIS Digital Leaders Forum and discussed this at the September BIS Digital Leaders meeting.

BIS also encouraged partner organisations with larger transactional services to use the Performance Platform, and discussed its use at the July BIS Digital Leaders Forum.

Planned activities in 2015

BIS will ensure its larger transactional services are on the Performance Platform.

BIS and partner organisations will have established a detailed technology roadmap to support digital services that allow common platform opportunities to be identified and developed.

Department for Culture, Media and Sport

Departmental digital strategy commitments (December 2012)

Although DCMS does not directly deliver any transactional services, it looks forward to co-operating with GDS to define any common tools that will help improve its service to users in other areas.

Progress during 2013

This action is not applicable to DCMS.

Planned activities in 2014

This action is not applicable to DCMS.

Progress during 2014

DCMS is introducing new technology platforms, and training from Cabinet Office is underway. This move was covered in practical sessions and presentations at the DCMS All Staff conference in October.

Planned activities in 2015

At the start of the year all DCMS civil servants will have upgraded IT hardware with more powerful internal wi-fi and broadband connections. DCMS is also moving to document management and email systems which will make collaborate and flexible working easier.

Department for Education

Departmental digital strategy commitments (December 2012)

Department for Education (DfE) is nearing the completion of a significant IT rationalisation programme following the arm’s length body (ALB) reform programme. It intends to source a set of strategic platforms that include CRM, business process management, collaboration and business intelligence to standardise shared IT services, remove legacy ALB platforms and applications and make associated cost savings.

Progress during 2013

DfE has worked with GDS and other departments to develop common platforms to provide information and services.

Planned activities in 2014

DfE will continue to work with GDS and other departments to develop common platforms to provide information and services.

Progress during 2014

DfE continued to work with GDS and other departments in the development of common platforms to provide information and services.

Planned activities in 2015

DfE will continue to work with GDS and other departments in the development of common platforms to provide information and services.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Departmental digital strategy commitments (December 2012)

Where justified by cost and efficiency, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) supports the delivery of common technology platforms to underpin digital services in the future. Trust is a particularly important issue for the development and usage of digital services in the future, and it will support GDS’s development of a common federated approach to identity assurance, in replacement of the existing Government Gateway system.

Progress during 2013

Defra supports the development of common technology platforms, and has been working with GDS on the development of a common federated approach to online identity assurance, a particularly important issue for Defra.

Planned activities in 2014

As resource and timelines permit, Defra will aim to adopt the approach to identity assurance for the new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) delivery system and then across other services that rely on the existing Government Gateway system.

Progress during 2014

Defra supports the development of common technology platforms, and has been working with GDS on identity assurance.

Planned activities in 2015

Both of Defra’s exemplars have a major dependency on the identity assurance programme (now called GOV.UK Verify) and Defra will continue to co-operate with GDS on the development of identity services. It has already started planning the transition of more than 30 existing services before the current Government Gateway service ends in 2016. Its particular needs centre on business identity.

Department for International Development

Departmental digital strategy commitments (December 2012)

This is not relevant to the department at this time as the Department for International Development (DFID) is not reengineering any transactions.

Progress during 2013

DFID has been participating in a cross-government grants efficiency programme with the aim of improving the quality and quantity of grant applications made to DFID. This also aims to make it easier to find and apply for relevant international development funds.

DFID’s systems allow the widest possible use of a full range of digital platforms and tools such as social media and cloud hosting of data.

Planned activities in 2014

DFID will seek to make use of new common platforms when they become available, where this supports its delivery of services.

Progress during 2014

DFID continued to consolidate internal tools and infrastructure to prepare for moving to common technology platforms. The 1HMG programme aims to better co-ordinate processes, people and systems across departments with an international remit. DFID is participating in the development of the international platform and has built this into its future technology roadmap.

Planned activities in 2015

Planned improvements to a number of IT systems (Aid Management Platform, Electronic Document and Records Management) will support further use of common technology platforms. DFID will seek to make use of new common platforms when they become available and where this supports its delivery of services. 1HMG will increasingly support shared services between departments with an international remit.

Department for Transport

Departmental digital strategy commitments (December 2012)

Department for Transport (DfT) will refresh its technical platforms to allow it to achieve its digital aspirations. The department will build in interoperability to its digital systems so that information can be easily migrated from one technology to another when it changes. It will use open, commonly used standards wherever possible to improve compatibility between systems and services. The department will also develop APIs so it can meet the needs of all its customers, big and small.

Progress during 2013

DfT has developed plans to migrate its key transactional technology platforms towards a more open architecture. The first exemplar service was used to act as a pathfinder for future projects to migrate data to a cloud-hosted, open source platform. It also aims to develop APIs that can be used for other services and systems to interact with drivers data.

Planned activities in 2014

Work will commence on a project to move the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency’s MOT system onto to an open architecture that will allow MOT garages to connect via a standard web interface. The Drivers and Vehicle Licensing Agency will start the development of services to manage vehicles records for drivers records.

Progress during 2014

DfT continued to use common platforms in new and improving services. View driving record used open source technology and is hosted in the cloud.

Planned Activities in 2015

DVLA will work closely with GDS on the implementation of its GOV.UK Verify Service.

Department for Work and Pensions

Departmental digital strategy commitments (December 2012)

Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) supports the use of common technology platforms. Its new IT platforms are being built around new technologies such as APIs, which offer opportunities to create a more integrated experience for users. It will also explore opportunities to work with other government departments, potentially by sharing platforms and technology or by designing joint services.

Progress during 2013

DWP has been progressing 3 exemplar products with a view to creating common technology platforms. There are a number of projects that are in feasibility stage that have requirements to share data between departments, although none of them currently have delivery plans. The department has been supporting them to identify common, reusable technology options.

Planned activities in 2014

DWP is committed to supporting the development of common technology platforms.

Progress during 2014

DWP began to build a set of common services for its programmes to drive efficiencies and be reused across the department and beyond. These common services will be adopted by all programmes as they mature. Examples include:

• the integration of GOV.UK Verify by New State Pension
• change of circumstances
• case and task management
• assisted digital
• information architecture

DWP is also beginning to design a digital service centre.

Planned activities in 2015

DWP will continue to build common services within the department, as well as reuse common platforms from elsewhere in government, so that all services are efficient and built using user-centred design.

Department of Energy and Climate Change

Departmental digital strategy commitments (December 2012)

Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) will co-operate with GDS and other departments in the development of common platforms to help provide information and services. This will include adopting shared identity assurance tools, and potentially opening up data to third parties through application programming interfaces (APIs).

Progress during 2013

DECC has worked with GDS and other departments in the development of common platforms to help provide information and services. This included adoption of shared identity assurance tools, and potentially opening up data to third parties through APIs.

Planned activities in 2014

DECC will continue to work with GDS and other departments in the development of common platforms to help provide information and services. This will include adoption of shared identity assurance tools, and potentially opening up data to third parties via APIs.

Progress during 2014

DECC successfully worked with GDS to implement common platforms.

Planned activities in 2015

DECC will continue to work with GDS and other departments to develop common platforms to provide information and services. This will include adopting shared identity assurance tools, and potentially opening up data to third parties via APIs.

Department of Health

Departmental digital strategy commitments (December 2012)

Department of Health (DH) will ensure that the need to consider Open Source is embedded in its procedures and processes, achieving level 4 in Open Source Maturity by April 2014. It will reuse existing solutions before building tailored solutions, and ensure that commissioning processes enable the use of open source and common platform solutions.

Progress during 2013

DH has commissioned a number of products with a shared platform approach in mind. The department has developed a monitoring and reporting dashboard for all communications work, including crisis communications, which uses the GOV.UK API to pull live data on website visitors and integrates with news and social media activity. This will be scalable and reusable across its ALBs and other departments. DH has also worked with the Health and Social Care Information Centre to develop a prototype for data visualisation that was built on existing technology for a fraction of the cost of building something from scratch.

Planned activities in 2014

DH will launch an intranet beta for the department and develop tools to allow automated text analysis to help analyse consultation responses and other text data. The department will continue to work with its ALBs to identify further options for shared platforms to increase efficiency and reduce duplication across the health and care system. The Health and Social Care Digital Services project (including the next generation of NHS Choices) will provide common platforms for the system as a whole.

Progress during 2014

DH continued to support Cabinet Office in the delivery of new technology platforms. DH’s new intranet and engagement websites were developed in Wordpress, with as much shareable code as possible, with a view to these assets being reused across government. All appropriate intranet code was shared on Github, and more sensitive documentation shared with other government departments internally. DH encouraged the reuse of platforms through its work with its ALBs.

Planned activities in 2015

In the publication of ‘Personalised Health and Care 2020: a framework for action’, DH proposed that NHS Choices will be developed to provide a core common platform for all care providers. The platform will be capable of customisation to reflect the specific needs of different localities and communities.

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Departmental digital strategy commitments (December 2012)

Given the small relative size of transactions for Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), it would be most cost-effective to draw on common GDS or other government-provided platforms for many of these functions, provided they work internationally.

Progress during 2013

FCO has supported the development of a new suite of common technology platforms which will underpin the new generation of digital by default services.

Planned activities in 2014

FCO will continue to support the development of a new suite of common technology platforms which will underpin the new generation of digital by default services.

Progress during 2014

FCO is reusing an appointments booking system developed by the Ministry of Justice in its project on digital consular appointments bookings.

Planned activities in 2015

FCO intends to draw on user testing and code developed by the Passport exemplar to help develop its Emergency travel documents transaction.

It will explore the opportunities to use the GOV.UK Verify service across its services.

HM Revenue and Customs

Departmental digital strategy commitments (December 2012)

HMRC’s IT Strategy moves the department from an environment where bespoke, line of business-specific solutions are the norm, to one in which a series of strategic platforms are central to delivering its IT capability. HMRC will work with Cabinet Office to develop common technology platforms and will use these for new and redesigned services, unless a specific case for exemption is agreed.

Progress during 2013

HMRC has started this work with its commitment to deliver its digital services for customers using a single multi-channel digital tax platform. It has been building this strategic web application platform which will drive all functionality using a common set of interfaces to its legacy systems. The platform will support core functions for customers using the services, while also offering the department a common way to implement digital services.

Planned activities in 2014

HMRC will complete delivery and further develop the multi-channel digital tax platform in line with its agreed prioritisation and pipeline.

Progress during 2014

HMRC built a multi-channel digital platform which supports 3 exemplar services (PAYE for employees, Your tax account and Digital Self Assessment). It also hosted the Tax Credit renewals public beta which ran from April to July 2014.

HMRC is working across government departments on cybercrime. It used GOV.UK Verify as part of its PAYE for employees (focusing on company car benefits) when this moved into public beta in October 2014.

Planned activities in 2015

HMRC will monitor transactions to assess performance of new and redesigned digital services delivered through the multi-channel digital tax platform and the existing portal.

HM Treasury

Departmental digital strategy commitments (December 2012)

This is not applicable to HM Treasury (HMT) as it does not offer online services.

Progress during 2013

This action is not applicable to HMT.

Planned activities in 2014

This action is not applicable to HMT.

Progress during 2014

This action is not applicable to HMT.

Planned activities in 2015

This action is not applicable to HMT.

Home Office

Departmental digital strategy commitments (December 2012)

Wherever possible Home Office transactional services will be designed to work effectively on these platforms, generating efficiencies and building a consistent user experience across all government services. Home Office will engage with GDS on development of these platforms and will work closely with Cabinet Office as we develop technology roadmaps for the next 5 years.

Progress during 2013

Home Office transactional services have worked with GDS to identify where they will use common technology services.

Planned activities in 2014

Home Office will continue to work with GDS to implement common technology services.

Progress during 2014

Home Office is aware that common services are often small capabilities or micro services which can be reused. The department provides identity authentication of passports through the Document checking service for GOV.UK Verify.

Planned activities in 2015

Home Office will continue to work with GDS to implement common technology services. Home Office is committed to work with other government departments on the departmental transformation projects. It will participate in any work arising from future exploration of the concept of ‘government as a platform’.

Ministry of Defence

Departmental digital strategy commitments (December 2012)

Ministry of Defence (MOD) will share and, wherever possible, reuse common technology platforms for service recruit marketing.

Progress during 2013

A senior recruit marketing group has recently formed under the Director of Reserves Forces and Cadets, which will seek to ensure there is sharing of recruit marketing tools and technology where possible. A cross-government task force has been established to boost Public Sector Reserve recruiting. This is based upon the sharing of digital best practice and has been delivered almost entirely within the digital space.

Planned activities in 2014

MOD will continue to develop a tri-service ICT solution for recruiting applications and CRM, based on digital processes, delivered by Capita as a part of the Recruitment Partnering Project. A ‘Tiger Team’ led by the chief information officer will make recommendations on the future delivery of this, which will be developed throughout 2014.

Progress during 2014

The Defence Gateway achieved MOD accreditation for its secure hosting and cloud-based solutions. The gateway will be used by the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force to provide a range of shared services and solutions for intra-defence business and communication needs.

In July MOD announced a 2-year transformation programme to deliver modern, open and flexible IT support to defence activity. The first phase (to be completed by March 2015) includes better access to the internet, quicker log-on and log-off times, access to social media and more flexible solutions using Wi-Fi.

Planned activities in 2015

MOD will develop a digital system for recruitment applications, and it will continue to take advantage of new common platforms.

It will complete the first phase of its transformation programme by March and the second phase by June.

Ministry of Justice

Departmental digital strategy commitments (December 2012)

Ministry of Justice (MOJ) will identify, develop and use common components and services. Its services will be built in a modular fashion, with ‘loosely coupled but tightly integrated’ modules, to allow us to take full advantage of platforms developed by Cabinet Office as they emerge.

Progress during 2013

MOJ has already benefitted from the common component approach, with a high degree of potential reuse opportunities across the range of services currently being transformed. The department worked closely with GDS to ensure that it has identified commonality more widely across government. It worked directly with Drivers and Vehicle Licensing Agency and Home Office, police and the Crown Prosecution Service on a range of opportunities for sharing components and code.

Planned activities in 2014

MOJ will maximise the benefits of common component use as more services move through the product cycle. It anticipates that there will be reusable payment, calendar, booking, document submission, authentication and other components featuring across a range of services this year.

Progress during 2014

MOJ recognised the benefits of common component use as more services moved through the product cycle (such as those listed above). It built an authentication component with future compatibility with GOV.UK Verify which was used in its exemplars.

Prison visit booking code was used elsewhere in government to build booking systems. The Court finder team collaborated with HM Courts and Tribunals Service on an open platform of information about courts.

Planned activities in 2015

MOJ Technology’s Future IT Sourcing Programme will be completed, paving the way for a single technology platform in MOJ.

MOJ Digital Services will support service transformation by building interoperable products and components.