Policy paper

Transforming for a digital future: 2022 to 2025 roadmap for digital and data - updated September 2023

Updated 29 November 2023

This was published under the 2019 to 2022 Johnson Conservative government

Foreword from the Parliamentary Secretary for the Cabinet Office, Alex Burghart MP

Digital transformation has unrivalled potential to improve the lives of citizens throughout the UK and modernise the way government works. People across the country rightly expect public services to be high quality, easy to access and available whenever they need them. They also have a right to expect that every penny they pay in tax is used as productively and efficiently as possible.

Last year, the government launched Transforming for a Digital Future, the 2022 to 2025 Roadmap for Digital and Data, with an ambition to transform public services, deliver world-class technology and attract and retain the best digital talent. The roadmap charted a clear set of priorities, focusing on the biggest digital opportunities. It was written by leaders across government, who came together to identify HMG’s collaborative next steps in digital and address recommendations identified in two reports in 2021: Organising for Digital Delivery and The Challenges in Implementing Digital Change.

A little more than a year on from publication, I’ve been hugely encouraged by the progress and substantial outcomes already delivered by teams across government. For example, over 2.2 million users have now proven their identity using GOV.UK One Login, using a choice of different routes including the app, web options and in person, while thousands of new technical experts have joined the civil service Government Digital and Data profession.

Over the past year, we’ve seen rapid technological advances - most notably in generative artificial intelligence (AI) - presenting us with new challenges and opportunities for innovation and transformation. With this pace of technological change and the growing expectations of citizens and businesses, we need to remain adaptable and focused to successfully achieve digital transformation. The need to iterate and review progress was also highlighted in a second digital review by the National Audit Office in March 2023, which noted good progress and emphasised the need to keep our plans up-to-date.

As the Parliamentary Secretary with responsibility for digital government, I remain focused on the targets and commitments we set out last year. I also believe it is essential we stay at the cutting edge of digital and remain relevant. Consequently, I am launching an iteration of the roadmap, which includes additional targets around AI and a heightened focus in several  existing areas, agreed with colleagues across departments.

By delivering against the roadmap, it’s my firm belief we will build the foundations for a better and more productive economy and society.

Message from Paul Willmott, Executive Chair, Central Digital and Data Office

Digital and data are the essential building blocks of all successful organisations. It’s only possible to make effective decisions, meet customer needs and respond to new challenges and opportunities when you have modern technology, real-time access to high quality data, a cadre of skilled digital talent and the right conditions for innovation to thrive.

People expect government services to be as good as the best online experiences in the private sector. Rising to meet these expectations will require change on a scale that government has never undertaken before.

This roadmap is an ambitious statement of intent. It represents a new era of collaboration on digital transformation and marks a step-change in the digital and data agenda. Written collaboratively, it sets out a collective vision under-pinned by real, tangible commitments and actions, to be delivered by all government departments.

I want to take this opportunity to thank our partners across government for bringing this one collective roadmap together. Digital impacts everything we do. As we recover from the COVID pandemic and react to increasing demand for public services, we must continue to collaborate and transform our digital capabilities, and deliver our ambition of providing world-class efficient digital services to the public.

The barriers that the government faces in achieving digital transformation are significant, however the opportunity it presents is immense, and will ensure UK society reaps the benefits for decades to come.

About the Government’s 2022-25 Roadmap for Digital and Data

This roadmap sets out a common cross-government vision for 2025 and a set of specific actions we will collectively take to achieve it. It has been written collaboratively by the Central Digital and Data Office (CDDO) and central government departments.

As set out in a report by the National Audit Office in 2021, previous attempts at digital transformation in government have had mixed success. Previous strategies have lacked specificity, cross-government endorsement, clear lines of accountability and business ownership. Subsequently, former flagship programmes have slowly shut down and failed to deliver results.

This roadmap is designed to be different. The creation of the CDDO has marked a new era of digital transformation in government, a hallmark of which is true collaboration and Permanent Secretary leadership for the Digital agenda on a scale never seen before. This roadmap has been developed with government’s most senior leaders alongside digital experts from across and beyond government. Together, we have worked to develop commitments that are concrete, measurable and ambitious, but also achievable, with robust plans in place to work across all departments to track and support progress.

This roadmap is for central government departments and does not directly apply to local government or the devolved administrations. However, CDDO and the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities are jointly engaging local government to help create alignment with these plans by supporting reform of local services and, where appropriate, encouraging join up with central government services. CDDO is also working closely with the devolved administrations to ensure there is close alignment between the government roadmap and their existing plans.

Background

The government has a set of ambitious priorities, from Net Zero, the plan to decarbonise our economy to net zero by 2050, to Levelling Up, the programme to spread opportunity more equally across the UK. These priorities and others could be delivered more quickly and more effectively through wider use of digital and data. Improving the way we use digital and data will also enable the government to operate more efficiently, delivering savings for the taxpayer.

New technology has revolutionised every aspect of our society and the economy, including the way that we deliver our public services. The government has come a long way over the past ten years to improve use of digital and data. In many areas, however, we still lag behind the private sector and other countries around the world.

Transforming for a Digital Future: Alex Chisholm

Where are we today?

June 2022

We’ve come a long way in the past decade. There are now thousands of Government Digital and Data professionals working in highly effective teams across government. Departments are often able to deliver high volume digital services to a good standard, manage complex technology estates well, and innovate and respond rapidly as citizens’ needs change.

Departments are also investing in cutting-edge technology to solve complex problems. For instance, the National Digital Twin Programme is creating a national ecosystem of connected digital twins including one which models the impact of flooding driven by climate change. Meanwhile HM Revenue and Customs is working with a UK start-up to integrate blockchain technology into supply chains to increase efficiency and security.

The COVID-19 pandemic proved that government could work faster to meet policy objectives through digital delivery. The Vulnerable People Service, delivered by the Government Digital Service, built the infrastructure to share data across central government, local government and wholesalers in just days, enabling the delivery of over 4.2 million supply packages to some of the most vulnerable people in our society.

However, in many areas, the UK government still lags behind other sectors. Our services are often slow, difficult to use and expensive to deliver. Departments operate many competing digital identity solutions as well as duplicative identity verification transformation programmes. Data quality is inconsistent and frequently poor and effective data sharing between departments is limited. We are held back by costly and outdated technology and we do not leverage our scale in technology procurement. We are failing to attract top digital talent or to build capability in-house at scale and our leaders are not yet as skilled in digital leadership as they need to be. Our funding structures and ways of working do not enable or incentivise agile delivery methodologies.

We have significant challenges to overcome. We need to address years of uneven progress and siloed development in individual departments which have led to varying levels of digital maturity across government. We need to deal with the costly issue of legacy IT that has been allowed to build up over multiple financial cycles and is now a barrier to the delivery of great policy and services. We need to address the skills gap that we see at all levels of the civil service and compete more effectively with the private sector for skills, or our lack of skills will continue to hold us back and prevent us achieving our ambitions.

Government is committed to addressing these problems. Significant financial investment has already been made in previous years, and in the 2021 Spending Review we committed to investing an additional £8bn in digital, data and technology transformation by 2025. This will mean outdated and inefficient legacy systems can be replaced, delivering better services and greater value for taxpayers. This ambition and investment now needs to be backed by a clear vision and a specific plan to transform the whole of government.

September 2023 update

Government Digital and Data teams across government have already delivered significant progress and substantial outcomes against the roadmap. This includes:

Mission One: Transformed public services that achieve the right outcomes

• Service experts across government have developed a ‘great’ service performance framework and assessed all Top 75 services against it in order to identify opportunities, blockers, and support needed to get at least 50 to reach ‘great’ standard by 2025.
• 15 services have now reached the ‘great’ standard, meaning they reach a high, measurable standard of both efficiency and usability, including Defra’s sign up for flood warnings, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities’ (DLUHC) register to vote and the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency’s (DVSA) record MOT test results.

Mission Two: GOV.UK One Login

• GOV.UK One Login is the new way for people to access government services online; quickly, safely, with one username and password, and without having to repeatedly confirm their identity. The core of the system is live, allowing users to create an account, log in securely and prove who they are via a web-based journey or smartphone app. Over 2.5 million people have already proved their identity through these routes, and One Login’s app has been downloaded more than 3 million times.
• The first 23 government services have onboarded to One Login; this includes the Disclosure and Barring Service’s Basic Check and HM Land Registry’s Sign Your Mortgage Deed.
• These developments have allowed the retirement of GOV.UK Verify as planned, with several services moving directly to GOV.UK One Login.
• One Login will scale up considerably over the next 18 months, as more government services and users onboard, as customer and technical support operations expand and as additional identity checking options are implemented. The latter will further improve inclusion so that more people - including those without a passport or driving licence - will be able to access services online.

Mission Three: Better data to power decision making

Chief Data Officers and their teams have:

• Created a data ownership model which sets out the core responsibilities and roles to support consistent data governance.
• Developed and launched the Data Maturity Assessment for government - all departments have agreed to run an assessment by the end of the 23/24 financial year.
• Developed a prototype cross-government data catalogue and data marketplace, the first key steps to making it easier for civil servants to find and access vital data they need for delivery and decision-making.

Mission Four: Efficient, secure and sustainable technology

Chief Technology Officers and their teams have:

• Widened roll-out of the common Legacy IT Framework, which measures the risk and effort of running outdated legacy technology. 26 organisations have now registered and scored their assets using the framework, supporting legacy remediation efforts. In HM Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS), for example, the Decommissioning & Legacy Risk Mitigation (DLRM) programme has calculated a risk score for every IT system and is using this to make priority decisions about decommissioning and migration.
• Created a Secure by Design framework to help teams design and build services that keep citizens and government safe.
• Launched a rapid start project to enable confident and responsible use of generative AI, including support for early adopter projects and the development of a new generative AI framework for government, to put this technology to work across the civil service.
• Agreed guardrails to inform the new government mobile app strategy.

Mission Five: Digital skills at scale

• The overall size of the Government Digital and Data profession grew by 19% between April 2022 and April 2023, addressing critical digital skills requirements.
• 32 organisations across the civil service have now adopted the common Government Digital and Data pay framework, helping to reduce reliance on contractors and save taxpayer money.
• More than 600 senior civil servants have been upskilled on digital and data essentials, helping build a cadre of leaders with digital skills.

Mission Six: A system that unlocks digital transformation

• Digital leaders across government agreed and published a new version of the digital functional standard to guide senior leaders on how to manage digital, data and technology in government.
• A framework for good product-centric ways of working has been developed and is being piloted, helping teams work together to deliver high quality digital products and services.
• Teams across government are bridging the divide between digital and policy. For example, the Home Office’s Product Lifecycle Management initiative is bringing policy, operations and digital, data and technology skills together to collaboratively design and deliver policy outcomes, while the Department for Education is embedding digital, data and technology leads and their service teams into all policy teams.

We’ve also learnt a lot since we launched the roadmap. We’ve used data and insight from across government to help identify the great challenges and areas in need of support, so that teams can prioritise activity and adjust their approach.

We are also continuously reviewing deliverability, in line with the recommendations of reviews by the National Audit Office in 2021 and 2023. Digital and business leaders have again come together, this time to review the commitments they made last year and propose a series of alterations and additions that will keep them targeted, focused on driving change and up-to-date with the evolving technology landscape. The full list of updated commitments is listed below under ‘What will it take?’.

Where will we be by 2025?

Our vision is that by 2025, the UK government will be a transformed, more efficient digital government that provides better outcomes for everyone.

This means we will:

• Exceed public expectations. We will create user-centric policies and public services that are more efficient, fit for the digital age, centred on user needs and deliver the right outcomes.
• Equip civil servants for a digital future. We will upskill civil servants in digital capabilities and digital delivery, with access to the right data and tools to do their jobs effectively.
• Enhance government efficiency and security. We will create a more joined-up and efficient government that uses common building blocks to deliver services quickly, cheaply and securely. We will enable and encourage digital innovation.

What does this mean for the public?

Digital transformation will make accessing public services far quicker and simpler. Millions of people interact with the government every week, be it to set up a business, renew their driving licence, or to access a benefit they’re entitled to, such as Universal Credit. Just as in other parts of life, those interactions are increasingly happening online.

Delivering this relies on having fast and efficient digital systems, high quality data and highly-skilled digital experts working across government. Digital transformation will ensure that government programmes are well designed, run and tested, making them quicker and easier, reducing the number of errors made, and saving the taxpayer money.

What does this mean for the government?

Leveraging the power of digital and data will make government more productive and sustainable, with less duplication and waste. Processes and systems will run more efficiently and policy and programmes will be delivered with greater precision and impact.

Improving the quality of the data government holds and making more effective use of it will enable better, data-driven decisions. It will facilitate the sharing of evidence and insights across the UK. Better evidence for decision-making will mean government makes fewer mistakes, reducing the amount of money wasted and instead investing more in delivering the right outcomes.

How will this make government more productive and efficient?

Digital is recognised in the private sector as the core driver of efficiency, but we are only beginning to harness its potential across the UK government. Private companies have reduced costs, sped up delivery times and improved user experience by focusing on end-to-end digital transformation of services, using agile, product-centric ways of working and investing in modern technology and systems. Government must do the same.

This roadmap sets out a series of actions to make government more productive and deliver value for the taxpayer. Digital transformation of government will enable teams to work in a more streamlined and efficient way, reducing duplicated work and automating manual processes. Analysis undertaken in 2022 identified that potential savings include:

• Over £1 billion through digital transformation of services, by eliminating the unnecessary costs of paper-based services and processes.

• £101 million net per year by the end of 2025 through the rollout of a competitive digital remuneration framework, reducing attrition rates of highly sought after specialists and our dependence on expensive contractor and consultant labour.
• Significant savings by leveraging government’s combined purchasing power and reducing duplicative procurement, to shift to a ‘buy once, use many times’ approach to technology.

Actions to deliver against these savings are detailed in the specific missions that are at the centre of the roadmap.

What will it take?

To reach our vision for 2025 and drive efficiencies, we must deliver against six cross-government missions.

1. Mission One - Transformed public services that achieve the right outcomes
2. Mission Two - GOV.UK One Login
3. Mission Three - Better data to power decision making
4. Mission Four - Efficient, secure and sustainable technology
5. Mission Five - Digital skills at scale
6. Mission Six - A system that unlocks digital transformation

Please note: The following commitments have been updated (September 2023). For the previous version, please see the archived version of the roadmap (June 2022).

Mission One: Transformed public services that achieve the right outcomes

Sponsored by Peter Schofield, Permanent Secretary at the Department for Work and Pensions

1. By 2025, at least 50 of the government’s top 75 identified services will move to a ‘great’ standard, against a consistent measure of service performance.

Mission Two: GOV.UK One Login

Sponsored by Jim Harra, Permanent Secretary at HM Revenue and Customs

2. All departments will confirm an adoption strategy and roadmap for One Login by April 2023 and their services will have begun onboarding by 2025.

Mission Three: Better data to power decision making

Sponsored by Professor Sir Ian Diamond, National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority

All departments:

3. Will work to make all ‘essential shared’ data assets available and in use across government through trusted APIs and platforms such as GDX and IDS.

4. Agree to co-develop and adopt a single data ownership model for ‘essential shared’ data assets.

5. Will have access to a Data Marketplace (including a Data Catalogue, standards and governance models) to rival best practice across public and private sectors.

6. Will ensure that 50% of ‘high priority’ data quality issues are resolved within the period defined by a cross-government framework.

Mission Four: Efficient, secure and sustainable technology

Sponsored by Paul Lincoln, Second Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Defence

7. All departments agree to promote a ‘buy once, use many times’ approach to technology, maximising use of common components, services and commercial agreements across government.

8. All ‘nationally important’ systems will be identified and will conform to an agreed Operational Resilience framework, including regular testing and cross-government scenario testing.

9. All departments will have a plan to migrate services and exit hosting arrangements that are not aligned to the cross-government cloud and technology infrastructure strategy.

10. All ‘red-rated’ legacy systems identified through an agreed cross-government framework will have an agreed remediation plan in place.

11. All new services shall comply with the common approach to Secure By Design.

12. CDDO, GDS, and departments will provide a joined up mobile experience of government services, by agreeing a common mobile app strategy, framework and technical standards, and tracking the availability and rating of mobile services.

13. Government will systematically track opportunities arising from emerging technologies, with a special focus on enabling departments to make confident and responsible use of Artificial Intelligence to improve efficiency and services.

14. All departments will increase sustainability throughout the lifecycle of their technology and services, and government will define and publish a sustainability index for each department.

Mission Five: Digital skills at scale

Sponsored by Matthew Rycroft, Permanent Secretary at the Home Office

15. Departments will strengthen their offer to existing and prospective talent by aligning role definitions to the Government Digital and Data capability framework, aligning to the Government Digital and Data Pay Framework as appropriate.*

16. All departments will set an objective to reduce their digital and data vacancies to under 10% of total Government Digital and Data headcount and embed a government wide recruitment standard which reduces average time to hire to 30 days.

17. At least 2,500 new entrants to the HMG Government Digital and Data profession will be introduced via apprenticeships and early career talent programmes.

18. At least 6% of the overall workforce of the Civil Service will be members of the Government Digital and Data profession.

19. Over 90% of senior civil servants will be upskilled on digital and data essentials, with learning embedded into performance and development standards.

20. Over 90% of Government Digital and Data professionals will undertake digital, data and technology related training at least once a year and will record their skills.

21. All departments will have a roadmap and committed date for reflecting the diversity of the UK population across their Government Digital and Data workforce.

*The Civil Service operates a delegated pay model. As set out in the 22/23 Civil Service Pay Remit Guidance, departments are required to submit a business case to the Cabinet Office for ministerial approval to implement the Government Digital and Data pay framework within their organisation. CDDO will support departmentally led Government Digital and Data pay reform as appropriate.

Mission Six: A system that unlocks digital transformation

Sponsored by Conrad Smewing, Director General, Public Spending at HM Treasury

22. CDDO and HMT will work together to develop and trial new approaches to financial processes, business case and impact tracking challenges, and pilot with four departments ahead of any potential wider rollout.

23. All departments will, as a minimum, meet the definition of “good” for product-centric organisational structures and agile ways of working when self-assessed against the new Digital Functional Standard.

24. For priority government services, the government will embed digital approaches and cross-functional teams into policy design and delivery.

How will we track progress?

This roadmap has been developed by the Digital and Data Board, a forum of Permanent Secretaries. The Digital and Data Board will provide overall governance for the strategy, review and report on progress every six months, and monitor efficiency savings.

Each mission is led by a Permanent Secretary level sponsor and will be governed through a dedicated steering group of senior civil servants, including Chief Digital Information Officers, Chief Technology Officers, and Chief Data Officers. This is a collective plan and statement of intent from all departments with ultimate responsibility for delivery residing with the Permanent Secretary or Accounting Officer in each department.

Each cross-government commitment is being translated into quantifiable, department-level targets against which progress will be measured. Quarterly Business Reviews, chaired by CDDO and HM Treasury, will be conducted to understand progress and blockers against targets, using departmental data to track key performance indicators and maturity indicators, including progress against efficiency savings.

CDDO’s spend controls function, which through delegated authority from HM Treasury approves and assures digital spend in departments, will work with departments and HM Treasury to align criteria for spend approval to the roadmap. This will help ensure that any newly approved spend will support delivery of both the strategy missions and departmental priorities.

For more information see our latest updates

Annex: Top 75 services

Mission One: Transformed public services that achieve the right outcomes

By 2025, at least 50 of the government’s top 75 identified services will move to a ‘great’ standard, against a consistent measure of service performance.

The Central Digital and Data Office will work with partners across government to transform the critical services which are frequently used by citizens, businesses and civil servants.

By 2025, these prioritised services will have great user experience and efficient processes that reduce their cost to run.

This list has been developed collaboratively by digital leaders across government, including the Permanent Secretary-level Digital and Data Board, focussing on high priority services for citizens and government. Services have been chosen based on importance, frequency of use, and volume of users. We will continue to work with departments to review and update this list, as the methodology is refined and more data is available.

Cabinet Office

1. Apply for a Civil Service job

2. Civil Service Learning

3. Manage my Civil Service pension

4. UK security vetting service

Department for Business and Trade

5. Apply for a standard individual export licence

6. Ask the export support team a question

7. Learn to export

8. Register and apply for The King’s Awards for Enterprise

Department for Education

9. Find an apprenticeship

10. Find school and college performance

11. Get information about schools

12. Get into teaching

13. Use the National Careers Service

Department for Energy Security and Net Zero

14. Register and apply to list energy efficient products

15. Register as a biomass supplier, submit reports and payment

16. Register for an exemption from minimum energy efficiency standards for landlords

17. Register for combined heat and power quality assurance and submit installation data

18. Register to use the Emission Trading Registry and report greenhouse gas emissions

Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs

19. Apply for rural grants and payments

20. Buy a rod fishing licence for England and Wales

21. Create a UK catch certificate for fish and shellfish

22. Get an export health certificate

23. Notify authorities of imports of products, animals, food and feed

24. Provide livestock information

25. Register or renew a business as a waste carrier, broker or dealer

26. Register or renew waste exemptions

27. Sign up for flood warnings

Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities

28. Apply for a voter card

29. Register to vote

Department for Transport

30. Apply for a driver digital tachograph card

31. Apply for your first provisional driving licence

32. Book a theory or practical driving test

33. Drive in a clean air zone

34. Manage your vehicle operator licence

35. Record MOT test results

36. Renew your driving licence

37. Tax your vehicle

Department for Work and Pensions

38. Apply for and manage Pension Credit

39. Apply for Bereavement Support Payment

40. Apply for Personal Independence Payment

41. Claim Access To Work

42. Claim Attendance Allowance

43. Claim Carer’s Allowance

44. Claim Employment and Support Allowance

45. Claim Funeral Expenses

46. Claim Jobseeker’s Allowance

47. Claim Maternity Allowance

48. Get your State Pension

49. Manage your Child Maintenance case online

50. Send your fit note

51. Apply for and manage Universal Credit Full Service

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office

52. Use the travel advice service

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC)

53. Apply for Child Benefit

54. Check income tax

55. Claim a PAYE repayment from HMRC

56. Pay your Self-Assessment

57. File your Self-Assessment

58. Add & update your contact details with HMRC

Home Office

59. Apply for a UK passport

60. Renew, update or replace an adult passport

61. Apply for a Standard Visitor visa

62. Apply for Skilled and Student visas

63. Apply to the EU Settlement Scheme

64. Find out if you can apply to settle in the UK

65. Request a basic DBS check

66. Register a birth or death

67. View and prove your immigration status

Ministry of Defence

68. Apply for a deceased person’s military record

Ministry of Justice

69. Apply for legal aid

70. Claim compensation if you were the victim of a violent crime

71. Create and use a lasting power of attorney

72. Calculate release dates for a prisoner

73. Assess a person’s risk and need in custody and community

Student Loans Company

74. Apply for student finance

75. Manage my student loan balance