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GCHQ admits contract management 'weaknesses'

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 13:21:52 GMT

A parliamentary committee has said the signals interception centre is addressing shortcomings in procurement of projects including the £2bn Interception Modernisation Programme

A report released on 11 March 2010 by Parliament's Intelligence Security Committee (ISC) said that GCHQ had "very considerable funding" for an undisclosed total amount, for its Signals Intelligence Modernisation Programme, which includes the Interception Modernisation Programme.

GCHQ told the committee that it held twice-yearly meetings of its investment board, as well as monthly internal management meetings to review progress on procurement. But it admitted in February 2009: "One of the critical weaknesses that has been flagged up for the last three or four years has been our whole approach to contract management."

The agency added: "Historically (GCHQ) has not been as good at managing… contracts on an ongoing basis, hence that critical weakness."

The agency said it has addressed the shortcoming by recruiting three senior specialist contract managers.

"It is essential that GCHQ's signals intelligence capability is maintained and indeed strengthened through its Signals Intelligence Modernisation Programme," the committee said in the report. "However, given the considerable sums of money involved, it is also essential that the work is effectively overseen. We welcome the fact that GCHQ has now introduced improved contract management mechanisms."

The report includes a graph showing that GCHQ's spending has risen by about 15% between 2005-06 to 2010-11. The numbers on the graph have been hidden in its public version.

The ISC report also expressed concern about GCHQ's loss of 35 laptops, its failure to meet the growing threat of cyber attacks, both state-sponsored and by Islamist terrorists.

Referring to the mislaid laptops, the report described GCHQ's attitude towards valuable and sensitive assets as "cavalier" and "unacceptable". It says 'haphazard' monitoring meant the surveillance agency did not know whether it had lost top secret information.

A GCHQ spokesperson said there was no evidence that any of the material on the laptops had "got into wrong hands", but admitted: "Given the state of the records, there is no way of confirming that."

The ISC said work to tackle the threat of electronic attacks was "about one-third below the level planned".

It added: "We have been told that the shortfall is because of the difficulties GCHQ has had in recruiting and retaining skilled internet specialists in sufficient numbers."

Unexplained delays in Gordon Brown's decision to clear the report mean the period it covers ended eight months ago. The prime minister has the power to the censor its reports as well as over the timing of their publication.

Kim Howells, a former Foreign Office minister and the Labour chairman of the committee said the report was "therefore considerably out of date".

The report, which covers a seven-month period up to July 2009, is studded with asterisks where information considered to be sensitive has been suppressed. These areas include the money spent by MI5, MI6 and GCHQ. The one figure the report does publish is £2bn, described as the single combined expenditure of the three agencies.

Additional reporting by The Guardian

Scottish Parliament calls for telehealth expansion

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 12:14:05 GMT

MSPs have criticised 'slow and inconsistent' introduction of remote and mobile healthcare services across the country, despite progress in some areas

The parliament's Health Committee said in a report on 8 March 2010 that every health board in Scotland should offer telehealth facilities.

"It has the potential to release much-needed resources in these economically difficult times for front-line patient services," said committee convener Christine Grahame. "The Scottish Government has some serious work to do in encouraging health boards to use and evaluate this technology."

The report also recommended the establishment of safeguards around patient confidentiality and IT systems; value for money being placed at the heart of any NHS telehealth strategy; patients, midwives, nurses and other health representatives to be members of the Clinical Portal Programme Board; and the creation of an 'eHealth' professional standards group.

An analysis of the report, with reaction from MSPs and the British Medical Association, is available on SmartHealthcare.com

NPIA to commercialise data sharing service

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 12:13:43 GMT

The National Policing Improvement Agency plans to market a data sharing system which will be used with the Police National Database

The Code List Management Service (CLMS) was developed by the NPIA, who now wants to hand the system over to a "partner" organisation to manage and run it as a commercial service.

CLMS was designed to manage data standards, and the way they are used to build new systems and link them together. The NPIA said that police officers have been using it to send and receive data and view key intelligence.

It is also being used by every police force as part of the process of preparing data for sharing through the Police National Database (PND), which will enable police to access and share intelligence held on local systems.

According to the NPIA, the CLMS has the potential for wider use, and allows users to manage, maintain and publish their data standards. It says that the commercialisation process will be in line with the Treasury's Wider Markets Initiative, which enables government departments to develop and sell new goods and services.

Richard Earland, chief information officer at the NPIA, said: "The NPIA is proud to have developed this system on behalf of the police service and to be leading the way in bringing innovative solutions to government and the private sector. CLMS also advances the government's agenda for better common data standards by providing a service for distributing data more efficiently."

Jobcentre Plus launches phone app

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 09:37:07 GMT

The government's employment service has set up an job search application for different types of mobile phone

Jobcentre Plus has made the app available for use on iPhones, the iPod touch and Google phones. It is free to download from iTunes or Android.

Employment minister Jim Knight said the Jobcentre App will provide a tool for people looking for work, making it easier to search by location, save preferences and get information about vacancies. It enables them to enter their location, or select key areas where they are looking for work and see exactly where vacancies are with Google maps.

It is planned that within a year they will be able to use GPS to spot jobs around them, and that the app will automatically notify people of new vacancies matching their preferences.
Last month about 60,000 people accessed the Jobcentre Plus website from their mobile phones.

The move comes in contrast to a recent trend in which a number of public sector organisations have launched applications specifically for the iPhone.
Speaking at the National Digital Inclusion Conference, Knight also announced a pilot to give Jobcentre Plus clients access to PCs. Initially about 200 PCs will be spread across approximately 50 jobcentres.

There will be free help for clients who have never been online, provided by Jobcentre Plus staff and partners such as UK Online and equivalent organisations in Wales and Scotland. Customers will be helped to set up an email account, build an online CV and supported to search for jobs online.

Currently some 350,000 vacancies, or 13%, of the vacancies advertised through Jobcentre Plus each year only accept electronic applications.

Knight said: "In this digital age being online is not a luxury, it is a basic right. Evidence shows that access to the internet improves exam grades, earning potential and can save up to £600 on family bills.

"As Smarter Government minister responsible for the digital transformation of public services I am committed to getting people online, improving the customer experience and saving money through a better, more efficient use of technology.

"Giving people access to the internet in jobcentres and expanding the tools available through the introduction of the app are just two elements of this work."

Tories want IT 'skunkworks'

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 17:13:56 GMT

The Conservative Party has advocated the creation of a small IT development team for government

Its IT manifesto, published on 11 March 2010, says that if it wins the general election it will create a "government skunkworks", using a term coined by Lockheed Martin to refer to a loosely structured research and development team.

The document says the team would deliver low cost IT applications in-house and provide advice on the procurement of large projects.

It also claims that a Conservative government would change the design process for new government IT projects by exploring simple, low cost solutions before bespoke commissioning. It says that procurement could be faster and cheaper if government becomes an "intelligent and capable" customer, able to manage IT procurement in house.

In a move towards greater centralisation, a Conservative administration would also strengthen the role of the government chief information officer, with new powers to implement open standards, open data and other IT policies across government departments.

The manifesto also promises the party would use online methods to create a more open procurement regime. It says every item of central government and quango spending over £25,000 should be published online, including every contract in full, along with all government tender documents worth over £10,000.

It claims this would create new jobs by opening up government procurement to small and medium enterprises.

For local government, every item of spending over £500 and every relevant contract would be published online.

Shadow Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude said: "Our proposals will make the UK the most technology friendly government in the world, introducing a right to government data, extending superfast broadband and creating a much more level playing field for SMEs."

Further policies outlined in the document include:

• creating a Right to Government Data, enabling the public to request and receive government datasets;
• a "level playing field" for open source software in government procurement and opening up government IT contracts to small businesses by breaking up large IT projects into smaller components;
• monthly online publication of local crime data on a street-by-street basis.

Stephen Roberts, principal analyst at Kable, said: "The game changer here for ICT vendors is the focus on contract openness. It would be foolish to hope that this trend will blow over, or that commercial confidentiality can be relied upon to preserve price differentials."

Otherwise, Roberts said that the industry might want to wait and see. "A maverick civil service 'skunkworks', beating the systems integration industry to low cost scalable solutions, is a delightful idea, but it would be nice to know something more about its competence and expertise other than that it would be 'small'.

"Also it's not clear how the enhanced role of the CIO would increase his sway over commercial directorates in Whitehall, without a radical centralisation of contract management and ownership."

HMRC spends £10m to boost IT skills

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 12:20:17 GMT

HM Revenue and Customs has agreed a partnership deal with Accenture to develop the work of its in-house IT team

According to a notice published in the Official Journal of the European Union on 11 March 2010, the department hopes Accenture will improve the capabilities of its in-house IT development team, IMS Solutions Development and Delivery (SDD).

Accenture will be expected to support "the transformation of SDD into a highly effective IT development and delivery organisation" and "improve the quality, availability and delivery of SDD developed applications/services".

Actively contributing to the development of an IT strategy and cost reduction will also be high on Accenture's agenda, HMRC has said.

HMRC, which in 2007 faced the embarrassing loss of two computer discs containing the personal details of 25m people, emphasised that its new IT partner must comply with data security requirements.

The contract is currently valued at £10m, down from the estimate of between £18m and £36m quoted in the tender document.

Under the terms of the deal Accenture may also provide services to other organisations involved in enforcing tax and customs laws. They include the Revenue and Customs Prosecution Office, Serious Organised Crime Agency, UK Border Agency, Home Office, Department for Work and Pensions, Benefit Fraud Inspectorate, Crown Prosecution Service and police forces.

Cardiff Uni signs £33m network deal

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 11:51:33 GMT

Cardiff University has signed a group of suppliers to its network infrastructure and services framework

According to a notice published in the Official Journal of the European Union on 11 March 2010, the framework contract covers the supply of copper and fibre cabling services, network switching equipment and associated infrastructure.

Winning suppliers include ComputaCenter, IKM, NextiraOne, RGD King, ERH Comms, DTP, Pervasive Networks, Selway Moore and Calyx.

The deal has been divided into five lots, which cover data network cable; telephony network cable; fibre optic cable; HP procurve network switch infrastructure; and broccade (foundry) network switch infrastructure.

Cardiff University said that it has created the framework so its work will be "supported and enhanced by a modern IT data and telephony network infrastructure".

IPS spends £1.3m advertising ID cards

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 00:05:00 GMT

The Identity and Passport Service has published details of its marketing and communications spending on the National Identity Scheme

The advertising expenditure, which works out at roughly £300 for every ID card applicant so far, covers online and offline advertising used to communicate with businesses and consumers in the north west of England and London, according to the IPS.

"The messages, both online and offline, highlighted general issues around the risks of identity, theft and fraud and encouraged people to be 'idsmart' by being aware of the risks," said Home Office Minister Meg Hillier, in a parliamentary written answer published on 9 March 2010.

The Home Office's executive agency also spent £87,700 on marketing and £11,930 on branding in relation to ID cards and the National Identity Register. Hillier told Nick Hurd MP that the marketing expenditure was used for developing and printing brochures, leaflets and application guidance notes for consumers. She also said that the IPS had spent nothing on public relations.

Separately, in a parliamentary written answer published on 8 March 2010, Hillier told Edward Timpson MP that the IPS has received 4,307 ID card applications from people living in the the north west of England.

ID cards were first introduced for foreign nationals living in Britain in November 2008 and are now available to UK citizens living in the north west of England on a voluntary basis. The scheme expanded to London in February, where cards are now available to 16-24 year olds. The Home Office plans to make the cards available to the entire population in 2012.

A Home Office spokesperson told GC News: "We have undertaken a public information campaign to ensure that people are able to make an informed choice about whether or not they would benefit from having an ID card. It is imperative that businesses are also aware of how ID cards can be used to ensure they are able to recognise them and make use of them effectively.

"Both IPS and other government departments routinely inform the public about the products and services we offer and ensure that we utilise the most cost effective channels that provide us the greatest reach for our messages in appropriate locations."

Clare Hirst, senior analyst at Kable, said: "Education of the public about the ID card is critical in promoting understanding of exactly why it can be useful, but there is still uncertainty about the future of the project, particularly with the possibility of a change of government."

BMA calls for suspension of SCR uploads

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 12:05:00 GMT

The British Medical Association has written to health minister Mike O'Brien, expressing 'serious concern' about the widespread introduction of Summary Care Records

The BMA also repeated its recent call for opt-out forms to be included with the information being sent to patients, and demanded that comments made by the BMA be withdrawn from a promotional video made by NHS Connecting for Health.

The letter, signed by BMA chair Dr Hamish Muldrum, GP committee chair Dr Laurence Buckman and NHS IT working party chair Dame Deirdre Hine, expresses "our serious concern about the recent accelerated roll out of the Summary Care Record," referring to the decision to introduce SCRs in five strategic health authority areas in December 2009.

It said the BMA has accepted only a limited introduction of SCRs, on the basis of "a further thorough independent evaluation". "We are therefore very surprised and disappointed that a much wider roll out was announced in December 2009 and this is in progress counter to the BMA's position above," it added.

The letter says that "a significant number of members" of the BMA's GP committee are calling for a boycott of uploading patient information onto the Spine to create SCRs. Although it does not go that far, the writers urge the Department of Health to halt SCR introduction in new areas, so that research on its introduction by University College London can be considered.

"Failure to do so will jeopardise the earlier gradual implementation and potentially the whole programme," it adds. "We are deeply disappointed that the current national roll out has bypassed the BMA's views, and ignored our goodwill which we have provided up until now."

The Department of Health denied that the introduction of SCRs was being rushed, as it has taken place over five years. "All patients in England over the age of 16 who are registered with a GP will be written to personally about the introduction of Summary Care Records. We absolutely support the right of any patient to opt out of having a record and have provided various options to make this process straightforward," said a spokesperson.

"Patients have at least 12 weeks to decide if they want to have a Summary Care Record. After this period, they are able to change their mind about having a record at any time," the department added.

The spokesperson pointed out that access to SCRs is open only to healthcare professionals who are directly involved in a patient's care, with the patient's permission, with use of smartcards using Chip and PIN technology and with all accesses recorded so they can be audited.

DoH launches no smoking iPhone app

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 11:51:56 GMT

The health department has spent around £10,000 developing an iPhone app to help users stop smoking

The application will provide daily hints and tips on how to manage cravings and keep a tally of how much money quitters have saved since they stopped smoking.

It will also direct people to local NHS Stop Smoking Services and include a direct link to the stop smoking helpline. Launched on 10 March 2010, No Smoking Day, it is available from iTunes, www.smokefree.nhs.uk and NHS Choices.

The department said that a similar iPhone application it launched in December 2009 to help people keep track of their alcohol intake has been downloaded 65,000 times so far.

It justified releasing this only for Apple's mobile equipment on the basis that 61% of mobile online access to NHS information is currently through an iPhone. For the iPod Touch the figure is 17%, 2.75% use a Nokia 5800, 2.11% a Nokia e71 and 4% a BlackBerry.

Smokers who do not have an iPhone or iPod Touch can text the word calculator to 64746 to receive information on an NHS Choices smoking calculator.

MoJ halves consultancy spending

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 00:05:00 GMT

The Ministry of Justice reduced its consultancy spending from £20.7m in 2007-08 to £10.5m in 2008-09 despite the failure of other departments to meet government cost cutting targets

According to a parliamentary written answer from Lord Bach, consultancy and technology company Accenture suffered from a particularly big fall. It said that the majority of payments related to its development of the electronic case management system Libra for the department.

The MoJ, created in 2007, paid Accenture £15.5m in 2007-08 for its services. This fell to £3.9m in 2008-09, according to a parliamentary written answer published on 8 March 2010.

Lord Bach told Liberal Democrat peer Baroness Northover that Libra has improved the exchange of information between the courts and criminal justice organisations such the police, the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency and the Office of Criminal Justice Reform. "This has led to a reduction in duplication of work and has enhanced services to court users, improving scheduling and monitoring of cases," he added in the written answer.

The government introduced plans to cut consultancy expenditure across all departments by around 50% after a 2006 National Audit Office report found that Whitehall was spending around £1.8bn a year on consultants.

A number of government departments have failed to cut spending, with at least seven increasing their expenditure on consultants during 2008-09. These departments include Work and Pensions, the Home Office, Communities and Local Government and Transport.

Chris Pennell, senior analyst at Kable, said: "The drastic cut in consultancy expenditure is as a direct result of firstly, the ending of the department's reorganisation programme – it has finished the change programme which aimed to unify the individual parts combined to form the MoJ, including aligning the disparate ICT elements. The MoJ is now embarking on the procurement phase of the programme to consolidate and standardise the ICT infrastructure.

"Secondly, the MoJ has made commitments to the overall drive to reduce by 50% total expenditure on consultancy services across the public sector. Although the government introduced targets to cut spending on consultancy services, a number of departments will struggle and it's unclear how these cuts are supposed to happen or where they are going to come from."

In another parliamentary written answer to Baroness Northover, the Department for International Development revealed that its consultancy expenditure had increased by nearly £2m. In 2007-08 it spent £8.9m on consultants, with the figure rising to £10.8m in 2008-09.

HMRC resorted to paper for millions of cases

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 14:02:36 GMT

A delayed IT system forced HMRC to revert to manual processing for 35m cases in 2008-09, according to the Commons Treasury Committee

The committee's report on the department's performance during 2008-09, published on 9 March 2010, says that despite substantial investment, HM Revenue and Customs' IT performance was "uneven".

In a previous report the committee had recommended that HMRC improved its contracts with IT suppliers and noted that one system has been delayed by a year. A consequence of this delay was that during 2008-09 the number of cases which needed manual processing increased from 16.5m in 2007-08 to 35m.

Against this background the committee says it as surprised to see HMRC declare in its annual report that it had been "hailed as a shining example of how to use technology to take government services to a new level".

It describes HMRC chief executive Lesley Strathie as remaining "bullish" about the department's IT progress, including a new agreement with its suppliers under the Aspire contract, which Strathie says will significantly reduce costs for the department over the coming years.

In its conclusion the report says that the future performance of HMRC will be highly dependent on improvements to its IT systems. "We will continue to monitor progress of its IT up-grading progress, including the new Aspire contract," it says.

The findings also reveal that the number of complaints about the department's online services increased from 514 in 2007-08 to 1,443 in 2008-09.

Furthermore, its contact centres answered only 57% of all attempts to call its helplines during the year.

The committee says that HMRC responded to this by saying that its performance is affected by peaks in contact – tax credit renewals (April to August), child benefit and return to education notifications (August and September) and the self assessment filing deadline (January) – but that performance outside these peaks is better and that they answered 75% of call attempts for all but three weeks in the non-peak period.

"Performance at HMRC remains mixed with considerable room for improvement and considerable challenges remain to be overcome if HMRC is to achieve this improvement," the report says.

"Noting a 7% increase in total recorded customer complaints, we urge HMRC to reflect on whether customer experiences of HMRC are yet improving as much as their summary of 'strong progress' implies."

Government disputes extent of PCS strike

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 11:40:35 GMT

Union members are taking part in 48 hour strikes affecting HMRC contact centres and outsourced IT staff for the DWP and the MoD

The Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) said the strike over plans to reduce redundancy payouts saw more than 200,000 public sector workers refusing to cross picket lines, reports The Guardian.

The union said that those on strike on 8 March 2010 included some 999 operators at the Metropolitan Police Service, more than 3,200 staff at HMRC in Longbenton and 660 of the 700 staff at the same organisation's contact centre in Dundee.

It added that around 1,000 PCS members working for HP Enterprise Services were also taking part in a separate two-day strike over pay freezes and job losses, including those working on contracts for the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and the Ministry of Defence (MoD) in Newcastle, Washington, Preston and near Blackpool.

But the government said its own monitoring suggests only 80,000 of the 270,000 PCS civil service members are taking part. Four out of the five civil service unions accepted a compensation deal last month.

The strike is over plans to reduce payouts for civil servants made redundant in order to save £500m over three years. The government insists it has already compromised with unions to protect low-paid workers and preserve their higher payouts. But the unions say their members still stand to lose thousands of pounds and that the deal is part of moves to make it cheaper to sack people as the government tries to reduce the wage bill.

Mark Serwotka, the PCS general secretary, said: "The government needs to stop burying its head in the sand and wake up to the scale of anger that has been generated by their plans to cut jobs on the cheap.

"Loyal civil servants face losing tens of thousands of pounds if they are forced out of their jobs. The government is tearing up their contracts in front of their eyes, yet claims it can do nothing about bankers' bonuses because of contractual obligations."

Tessa Jowell, the Cabinet Office minister, said: "More than 70% of PCS members have decided not to take part in today's action. This means that 85% of all civil servants are working as normal today. Across the country services to the public are largely unaffected – all job centres and benefits offices are open, border entry points are working normally and court services are being maintained."

Liverpool to spend £26m on schools ICT

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 00:05:00 GMT

Liverpool City Council has received government approval for its Building Schools for the Future (BSF) plans, worth £350m in total

The plans, which are part of BSF's sixth wave of spending, include the provision of ICT services at 24 secondary schools in Liverpool. These will be rebuilt and refurbished in five phases from 2013 to 2017.

A spokesperson for the council told GC News: "Of the £350m being spent on BSF, over £26m will be on IT. That accounts for around 7.3% of the overall BSF spend."

According to a notice published in the Official Journal of the European Union on 3 March 2010, the preferred supplier will install telecommunications equipment, computers and information processing technology.

The notice also says that the council is "seeking an innovative private sector partner or partners to participate and invest in a new Public Private Partnership vehicle (a Local Education Partnership or LEP) to be established jointly with some or all the contracting authorities".

Warren Bradley, Liverpool City's Council leader, said: "Building Schools for the Future is a once in a generation opportunity, and I'm delighted the government has given our plans the go ahead. It's great news for Liverpool and paves the way for us to transform education at every secondary school in the city."

The new investment follows Liverpool's involvement in wave two of BSF, which includes the overhaul of six secondary schools under a previous funding round. Work for wave two is due to finish next year. Liverpool Direct was set up by the council and BT in January last year to provide technology and ICT support for the schools involved in wave two.

DNA policy 'impossible to defend' say MPs

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 14:36:49 GMT

The House of Commons' Home Affairs Select Committee has recommended changes to the retention periods for DNA profiles

"The current situation of indefinite retention of the DNA profiles of those arrested but not convicted is impossible to defend in light of the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights and unacceptable in principle," the committee says in a report published on 8 March 2010.

About 5m people have their personal profiles recorded on the National DNA Database, but just fewer than 1m of them have no record of any offence on the Police National Computer.

Although the committee does not want a return to the pre-2004 situation of DNA being collected only on charging and not on arrest, it says that it should be easier for those wrongly arrested or who have volunteered their DNA to get their records removed from the database.

It does not, however, recommend a particular period for the retention of DNA data. "Given the complexity of the issues and the conflicting evidence about what would be an appropriate length of time for retention, we are unable to recommend a specific period other than to say that we would regard three years as the minimum length of time for which such profiles should be retained," the report says.

The findings indicates that as few as 0.3% of crimes result in conviction as a result of DNA evidence. The committee believes that DNA alone is unlikely to result in a conviction for crime, but that DNA profiling and matching are "vital tools in the fight against crime".

The committee's investigations were prompted growing public concern about the increasing size of the police National DNA Database, the over-representation of certain ethnic and age groups on it and that it contained information about people never charged or convicted of a crime.