Action 12: Cabinet Office will continue to work with departments to remove legislative barriers which unnecessarily prevent the development of straightforward and convenient digital services
Updated 16 January 2015
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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 removal of legislative barriers where they prevent the development of straightforward and convenient digital services.
Progress during 2013
Law Officers’ departments continue to support the removal of legislative barriers where they prevent the development of straightforward and convenient digital services.
Planned activities in 2014
Law Officers’ departments will continue to support the removal of legislative barriers where they prevent the development of straightforward and convenient digital services.
Progress during 2014
The Attorney General’s Office (AGO) is not aware of any legislative barriers.
Planned activities in 2015
Law Officers’ departments will continue to support the removal of legislative barriers where they prevent the development of straightforward and convenient digital services.
Cabinet Office
Departmental digital strategy commitments (December 2012)
Through the Government in Parliament Group and GDS, it will work with departments to identify and amend any unnecessary legislative requirements that are holding back a shift to more straightforward digital services.
Progress during 2013
No cross-cutting legislative requirements have been identified in 2013.
Planned activities in 2014
Any cross-cutting legislative impediments will be escalated through the Digital Leaders Network.
Progress during 2014
No requirement for legislative change was identified.
Planned activities in 2015
No requirement for legislative change has yet been identified. If any are identified, these will be flagged up through the Digital Leaders Group for further action.
Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
Departmental digital strategy commitments (December 2012)
Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) are aware of few significant legislative barriers to achieving digital by default for our services. It will work with Cabinet Office to identify any legislative barriers, in particular as they rebuild services to be digital by default.
Progress during 2013
BIS has been working with Government Digital Service (GDS) to overcome any legislative barriers to making our services digital by default. For example, Student Loans Company is looking at options for the “wet signature” required on the online loan declarations and Land Registry is working with the Law Society to review requirements under the Property Act and Land Registration Act and Rules.
Planned activities in 2014
BIS will continue to work with GDS to overcome any legislative barriers which arise.
Progress during 2014
BIS did not have any significant legislative barriers to overcome in 2014.
Planned activities in 2015
BIS will work with GDS to remove any legislative barriers to digital delivery.
Department for Culture, Media and Sport
Departmental digital strategy commitments (December 2012)
Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) does not provide digital services, however it is committed to ensuring its legislation is fit for a digital world. In particular we are currently looking at a range of measures to remove red tape to support rollout of broadband, and amending the Gambling Act 2005 in line with digital advances.
Progress during 2013
DCMS has implemented a number of measures to remove barriers to broadband deployment, including changes to planning regulations to support the deployment of fixed and mobile infrastructure which came into force in summer 2013. This is part of the rollout of superfast broadband across the country.
Planned activities in 2014
The Remote Gambling Bill seeks to amend the Gambling Act 2005 to extend its regulatory scope to include British operators who have their remote gambling operations offshore.
DCMS will continue to ensure that legislation is appropriate for digital developments.
Progress during 2014
The Remote Gambling Act came into force on 1 November 2014. It amends the Gambling Act 2005 by extending its scope to include British operators who have their remote gambling operations offshore.
Planned activities in 2015
DCMS will continue to ensure that legislation is appropriate for digital developments.
Department for Education
Departmental digital strategy commitments (December 2012)
Department for Education (DfE) is not aware of any significant legislative barriers to achieving digital by default for its services. It will work with Cabinet Office to identify and amend any legislative barriers, in particular as it rebuilds services to be digital by default.
Progress during 2013
DfE is not aware of any significant legislative barriers to achieving digital by default for its services.
Planned activities in 2014
DfE does not anticipate any significant legislative barriers to achieving digital by default for its services.
Progress during 2014
DfE did not encounter any significant legislative barriers to achieving digital by default for its services.
Planned activities in 2015
DfE does not anticipate any significant legislative barriers to ensuring its services are digital by default. Where any are identified, it will work with Cabinet Office and interested parties to remove them where it can.
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Departmental digital strategy commitments (December 2012)
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) will review relevant regulations to identify where they are a real barrier to digital service delivery. It supports Cabinet Office’s efforts to address these barriers, and the intention to legislate to allow greater data sharing between government organisations.
Progress during 2013
Defra has reviewed the range of information burdens imposed on business as part of its Smarter Environmental Regulation Review. The department has embarked on a programme to rationalise guidance and information requests, which will also highlight opportunities to remove barriers to digital transformation.
Planned activities in 2014
Both of Defra’s exemplar developments are responding to changes and decisions made at European Union level. Defra is trying to negotiate flexibility in implementation of Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) rules so that the new service can be fully digital by default. Defra supports the ongoing efforts by Cabinet Office to allow greater data sharing between government organisations.
Progress during 2014
Defra continued its Smarter Guidance Review, which seeks to rationalise guidance and information requests to the public and businesses.
Planned activities in 2015
Both of Defra’s exemplars are responding to changes and decisions made at the EU level. Defra has tried to negotiate flexibility in the new CAP scheme rules to limit complexity and support digital delivery, but this has not always been successful. It supports efforts by the Cabinet Office to allow greater data sharing between government organisations.
Department for International Development
Departmental digital strategy commitments (December 2012)
Department for International Development (DFID) are not aware of any significant legislative barriers to achieving digital by default for its services. If legislative barriers do arise as it rebuilds services, it will work with Cabinet Office to amend these.
Progress during 2013
DFID is not aware of any significant legislative barriers to achieving digital by default for its services. If legislative barriers do arise as services are rebuilt, the department will work with Cabinet Office to amend these.
Planned activities in 2014
DFID will ensure that it works with Cabinet Office should any legislative barriers arise during the rebuild of services.
Progress during 2014
DFID has not encountered any significant legislative barriers to achieving digital by default for its services.
Planned activities in 2015
DFID will ensure that it works with Cabinet Office should any legislative barriers arise during the rebuild of services.
Department for Transport
Departmental digital strategy commitments (December 2012)
Department for Transport (DfT) will develop plans to remove the barriers that make it difficult for people to do things digitally, working with GDS to identify any changes needed in legislation.
Progress during 2013
DfT has reviewed current and future service requirements and confirmed that there is only 1 remaining legislative barrier to delivering services digitally. A process is in place to deal with this, which is the need to return the vehicle log book to the Drivers and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) when selling or disposing of a vehicle.
Planned activities in 2014
DfT will continue to work to remove the legislative barrier that requires the return of the vehicle log book to DVLA when selling or disposing of a vehicle.
Progress during 2014
DVLA removed a legislative barrier for vehicle management (the requirement to physically surrender the log book). The personalised registration process was reviewed and will also be simplified.
Planned Activities in 2015
DVLA will work with stakeholders to find the most effective way to remove the need for the driving licence paper counterpart.
Department for Work and Pensions
Departmental digital strategy commitments (December 2012)
Legislation can be a barrier to effective service design. Where possible, Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) will remove any legislative barriers to digitisation at the earliest opportunity, and build flexibility into future legislation to enable it to experiment with new approaches and respond to user feedback.
Progress during 2013
Legislation is sufficiently flexible and does not prevent services from being delivered online.
Planned activities in 2014
DWP will ensure that flexibility is built into future legislation that enables them to experiment with new approaches and respond to user feedback.
Progress during 2014
Legislation is sufficiently flexible and does not prevent services from being delivered online.
Planned activities in 2015
DWP will continue to ensure that legislation is sufficiently flexible and does not prevent provision of online services.
Department of Energy and Climate Change
Departmental digital strategy commitments (December 2012)
Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) will work with Cabinet Office and assist in assessing whether obstructive legislation is necessary and addressing any issues. When drafting new legislation, policymakers will work with digital service delivery as a consideration from the outset, in order to minimise incidents of unnecessary obstructive legislation in the future.
Progress during 2013
DECC’s digital strategy has a goal to “ensure that the principle of digital by default extends throughout all of its work, including policymaking and information service”. DECC is a policy-led department and its approach to implementing the Digital by Default Service Standard requires a change in the way policy is developed and services are delivered. A Digital by Default programme has been set up to provide digital service delivery guidance to policymakers and across the department.
Planned activities in 2014
DECC will continue to provide guidance on digital service delivery to policymakers and across the department.
Progress during 2014
The Digital by Default programme has worked across DECC to build knowledge and capability. No legislative barriers were identified.
Planned activities in 2015
DECC will continue to provide guidance on digital service delivery to policymakers and across the department.
Department of Health
Departmental digital strategy commitments (December 2012)
Department of Health (DH) does not currently directly deliver transactional services to the public. Should it do so in future, it will work with Cabinet Office to remove any legislative barriers which unnecessarily prevent the development of straightforward and convenient digital services.
Progress during 2013
DH is working with the Head of Data Sharing Policy in Cabinet Office’s Government Innovation Group to identify any potential legislative barriers that will affect digital services across the health and care system.
Planned activities in 2014
DH will continue to support this work and if any legislative barriers are identified it will work with Cabinet Office to remove them.
Progress during 2014
DH is not aware of any legislative barriers to current development of digital services.
Planned activities in 2015
DH will work with Cabinet Office to remove any legislative barriers which might emerge as service redesign progresses.
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
Departmental digital strategy commitments (December 2012)
Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) faces a range of legislative barriers to digitising its transactions and overcoming these barriers will be key to maximising the potential use of digital and delivering the most effective services for British nationals. That is why FCO will work with GDS on removing UK legislative barriers to digitisation and work within international forums and with bilateral partners to remove international legal barriers to digitisation.
Progress during 2013
FCO has sought to remove legislative barriers to helping British nationals marry in some countries. During negotiations with bilateral partners on redesign of services FCO has identified and lobbied to remove barriers to digital delivery.
Planned activities in 2014
FCO will be changing legislation to allow the registration of overseas births and deaths of British nationals to be processed electronically in the UK. Negotiations with bilateral partners on redesign of services will include identifying barriers to digital delivery and lobbying to remove them.
Progress during 2014
FCO worked with Cabinet Office to support their efforts on international best practice in digital government. FCO helped create the D5 network, which is a new network of governments that are world leaders on digital government (currently the UK, South Korea, Estonia, New Zealand and Israel, with plans to expand). The inaugural summit was held in London in December.
FCO removed some legal barriers to digital services around birth and death registration.
Planned activities in 2015
FCO will continue working with the Cabinet Office to help support their work to develop international best practice in the delivery of digital services.
HM Revenue and Customs
Departmental digital strategy commitments (December 2012)
Legislation enacted before the digital age can constrain the development of simple, convenient digital by default services. HMRC delivery teams will review current restrictive interpretations of laws passed before digital channels existed and will consider whether legislation needs to be changed.
Progress during 2013
As part of the development of the exemplars HMRC has been working with policy and legal teams to ensure that the legal and policy barriers for digital are removed. This work continues but the department has been looking to develop an overarching package of policy and legislative measures which will ensure it can deliver on its spending review 2013 commitments.
Planned activities in 2014
HMRC will continue work with policy experts with a view to developing a package of policy and legislative measures to ensure it can deliver on its spending review 2013 commitments.
Progress during 2014
HMRC undertook extensive policy analysis on its Digital Self Assessment exemplar to ensure it aligned with policy and legislation.
Planned activities in 2015
HMRC will undertake further work to understand the impact of digital across the tax administration framework.
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)
Work is underway to identify the key legislative barriers to digital service development at Home Office. The key barriers are identified in this strategy, and they are barriers that are also faced by other departments. The speed at which these legislative blockers can be addressed will influence the speed at which we are able to achieve truly digital by default services.
Progress during 2013
Home Office has ongoing work examining the legislative barriers to digital delivery identified in the strategy.
Planned activities in 2014
Home Office will ensure that any further legislative barriers to digital developments are identified and, as far as possible, removed.
Progress during 2014
Home Office examined the legislative barriers to digital delivery identified in the strategy. Barriers to moving passport applications fully online were reviewed and addressed.
Planned activities in 2015
Home Office will ensure that any further legislative barriers to digital developments are identified, and as far as possible removed.
Ministry of Defence
Departmental digital strategy commitments (December 2012)
The Service Personnel and Veterans Agency and Defence Policy (remuneration policy team) are assessing what legislative barriers need to be removed from pensions and compensation legislation to permit digital by default access to services.
Progress during 2013
Work has been delayed until the appointment of the Digital Transformation team.
Planned activities in 2014
Once the Digital Transformation Team has been appointed Ministry of Defence (MOD) will assess any legislative barriers that may need to be removed to allow access to digital by default services.
Progress during 2014
MOD changed its internal IT processes and ways of working to make things more straightforward. This was linked to the new government classification system.
Planned activities in 2015
No requirement for legislative change has yet been identified. If any are identified by the development roadmap, MOD will work with Cabinet Office and interested parties to remove them where it can.
Ministry of Justice
Departmental digital strategy commitments (December 2012)
Ministry of Justice (MOJ) will identify and remove legislative barriers to digitising services. In practice this could mean reviewing current restrictive interpretations of laws or amending legislation that prevents us from developing straightforward, convenient digital services. As legislation can take time to change, in the interim MOJ will get on with delivering partial digital solutions, but always with a view to realising the full potential for digitisation later.
Progress during 2013
MOJ continued to design services to deliver a fully digital solution wherever possible. Some barriers remain and the department has sought to ensure that all aspects of services that can be digital are made digital. The department has begun developing a strategy to address legislative barriers in a more comprehensive fashion and will seek cross-departmental views as the work develops.
Planned activities in 2014
MOJ will deliver against the agreed strategy, conducting a legislative review as a crucial part of early discovery work. The department will also conduct an open policymaking exercise with MOJ service users, stakeholders and the wider public. This will begin to build a picture of the relevant practical, legal and political considerations of the legislative and regulatory barriers to wholly digital services. As a department with a high volume of transactions in the legal sphere, MOJ believes that there is great scope for reform.
Progress during 2014
MOJ’s digital services team began a feasibility study into changing legislation both across government and in MOJ, to enable the introduction of end-to-end digital products. To do this, it recruited policy professionals with strong digital skills to lead on the required changes to policy process and legislation.
Planned activities in 2015
MOJ Digital Services is conducting a review of all relevant legislation that may hinder the introduction of end-to-end digital products.
The team aims to increase cross-departmental work on these barriers and to be ready to introduce legislation at the beginning of the next parliament. *[AGO]: Attorney General’s Office *[ALB]: arm’s length body *[ALBs]: arm’s length bodies *[API]: application programming interface *[APIs]: application programming interfaces *[BIS]: Department for Business, Innovation and Skills *[CAP]: Common Agricultural Policy *[CIO]: chief information officer *[CODATT]: Cabinet Office Digital and Technology Team *[COO]: chief operating officer *[CSL]: Civil Service Learning *[CTO]: chief technology officer *[DBS]: Disclosure and Barring Service *[DCMS]: Department for Culture Media and Sport *[DECC]: Department of Energy and Climate Change *[Defra]: Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs *[DfE]: Department for Education *[DFID]: Department for International Development *[DfT]: Department for Transport *[DH]: Department of Health *[DHI]: Digital Health Information *[DMC]: Directorate of Media and Communications *[DSA]: Driving Standards Agency *[DSF]: Digital Services framework *[DVLA]: Drivers and Vehicle Licensing Agency *[DVSA]: Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency *[DWP]: Department for Work and Pensions *[EMC]: Executive Management Committee *[ERTP]: Electoral Registration Transformation Programme *[FCO]: Foreign and Commonwealth Office *[FOI]: freedom of information *[GIG]: Government Innovation Group *[GDS]: Government Digital Service *[GDTOM]: Government Digital Target Operating Model *[HAS]: Honours and appointment service *[HDS]: HMRC Digital Services *[HMRC]: Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs *[HMT]: Her Majesty’s Treasury *[IATA]: International Aid Transparency Initiative *[IER]: Individual Electoral Registration *[IPO]: Intellectual Property Office *[KPI]: key performance indicator *[KPIs]: key performance indicators *[MOD]: Ministry of Defence *[NEED]: National Energy Efficiency Database *[NIB]: National Information Board *[NII]: National Information Infrastructure *[PHE]: Public Health England *[SCS]: Senior Civil Service *[SFA]: Skills Funding Agency *[SLC]: Student Loans Company *[SMEs]: small and medium-sized businesses *[SPS]: Single Payment Scheme *[SPVA]: Service Personnel and Veterans Agency *[UKBA]: UK Border Agency *[VOSA]: Vehicle and Operator Services Agency