UK govt must learn fast and let failing projects die young – Source: go.theregister.com

The UK’s government spending watchdog has called on the current administration to make better use of technology to kickstart the misfiring economy and ensure better delivery public services amid tightened budgets.

In a speech before Parliament, the head of the National Audit Office, Gareth Davies, will set out “fundamentals” for effective design to help solve the problems of productivity, and to beef up resilience against short- and long-term cyber threats.

He expects these issues to feature heavily in the next five-year spending review, scheduled for June.

Davies, technically the comptroller and auditor general, is expected to say today that since the 2008 financial crisis, the UK has seen lower productivity growth across the whole economy than in the decades before, exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic.

While productivity has struggled to improve, demand for services continues to grow, he is to point out.

“Take one example of acute hospital productivity. Figures from NHS England in May last year showed it was still 8 percent lower in 2023/24 than before the pandemic, and much work is under way to address this. Meanwhile, demand for services continues to grow, and not just in the NHS. Focusing on productivity across the entirety of public services is therefore essential.”

Davies expects AI to be be part of the solution, as it has the “clear potential for reducing the time taken for routine tasks, augmenting the work of skilled experts and making public services easier to use.

“The question is not whether AI will make a difference to productivity but how to maximize the benefits whilst managing the risk,” he is expected to say.

The UK government recently announced a plan for adopting AI across government, including Humphrey, an AI toolset which promises several products that are ready to roll out. For example, the “Consult” tool is intended to help analyze responses to government consultation, reducing the time taken.

“We’ve started seeing relatively straightforward applications of AI in government. These are the foothills of a huge coming change in the design of government services and administration. Good governance will be needed to manage the risks accompanying AI, to ensure fair treatment of service users and citizens and maintain public trust.

“But the immense opportunities for greater productivity, and more user-friendly services, mean that these are risks to be managed, not avoided,” Davies is set to say.

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Also on his list of improvements is system reform, investing in skills and “maintaining assets to support productive service delivery.” The last point involves being better equiped to tackle “increasingly likely events, whether that’s pandemics, extreme weather or cyber attacks.

“All this evidence points to the same thing: we need to be better prepared nationally and locally; to have sound risk management in place; and to be ready to adapt to new information and events quickly and effectively.”

Multiple councils and areas of the NHS were targeted by cyber baddies in the past year, and criminals breaking into systems is now almost a monthly occurrence.

Davies is expected to tell Parliament not to fear getting things wrong but to learn from past mistakes.

“Another feature of successful innovators is their ability to learn quickly what works and what doesn’t, so that failed experiments can be stopped promptly and the resources redirected to more promising ideas. Being open about this can be challenging for government, with its ingrained worry that any failed project represents poor value for money.”

Reg readers will be only too aware of the many failed tech projects that have dogged successive governments in the past couple of decades, as well as the eye-watering costs involved.

In a separate recent report, the NAO pointed out that those in charge of tech procurement within central government lacked an understanding of technology and a commercial grip on suppliers.

“Current government processes from business case development to contract award do not work well for digital programs. Departments can present investment cases without a detailed assessment of technical feasibility, for which there is no detailed central government guidance,” it said. ®