The UK government today (21 January) published a report outlining technology driven changes for a wholesale transformation of the country’s public sector that could save up to £45bn.
The State of Digital Government review highlights digitisation as the most powerful lever available to drive public sector and service reform. “Opportunities are based predominantly on process simplification, AI-driven automation of manual tasks, greater availability, adoption of low-cost digital channels and reduced fraud through compliance automation,” according to the review.
Some departments currently manage over 500 paper-based services and a lack of information sharing between departments further hampers citizens, often the most vulnerable, according to The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology.
However, the headline figure of £45bn in potential savings to the public sector could be misleading, according to GlobalData principal analyst Gavin Sneddon who noted that the actual commitment within the review seems rather more vague: “The changes due to be announced could save taxpayers billions”.
“Successive governments have claimed to be able to deliver budget savings as a result of increased productivity but have rarely managed to fulfil this expectation in reality,” said Sneddon.
From past experience, the use of technology to deliver real “cashable” savings requires proper business analysis of the requirements of the services, upfront capital investment in new solutions, an understanding of any specific roles which will no longer be required, and a robust staff development and change management programme, according to Sneddon.
In addition, any tech transformation plan would need to ensure policy and procedures do not obstruct effective delivery, as well as the implementation of effective procurement and contract management.
“While the use of AI enables technology to assist with a wider range of use-cases, all of these fundamentals above remain absolutely necessary if the desired outcomes are to be delivered in reality,” said Sneddon.
“Frequently, technology has failed to deliver the promised benefits because the problem it is intended to solve has not been properly understood. If the Government wishes to pick the fruit of the productivity tree it will need to water that tree with upfront capital investment. The Government may need to borrow more capital in order to save subsequent revenue expenditure and its financial room for manoeuvre is very limited,” added Sneddon.
Important technology players in the UK’s private sector are supporting UK government efforts for technology driven growth transformation. Google published a paper entitled Unlocking the UK’s AI potential in September 2024.