The Department of Health has been Katie Davisless for some time now. That, and GDS's fantasy strategy

Does Sir David still provide mental health services in England?

12 October 2011, Less for more:

First Katie worked for James and Ian. Then Ian left and so did Katie. When James left as well, Katie stopped working for Ian and went to work for James. Then James left and Sarah took over. There was no room for Katie so she went back to working for Ian. Until Christine left and now Katie finds herself working for David. Or is it the other way around? ... In 2007 she moved to the Identity & Passport Service (IPS), where she was appointed Executive Director of Strategy. After three years of her strategy, IPS imploded ... Had Ian Watmore at last managed to assert his authority over the Department of Health? Who knows. But one way and another, Christine Connelly was replaced by Katie Davis ...

Last seen, Katie Davis was the Cabinet Office's representative at the heart of the Department of Health. Her task? To stop money pouring down the NHS's National Programme for IT (NPfIT, £12 billion) and to get Sir David Nicholson under control.

Sir David Nicholson KCB CBE is Chief Executive of the English National Health Service and Chief Executive of the NHS Commissioning Board. "Nicholson joined the NHS on graduation, and then the Communist Party of Great Britain. He remained a member of the party until 1983". That's what it says in his Wikipedia entry and presumably it's there to be quoted.

DMossEsq must confess to a certain horrified admiration for Sir David. Never met him but he comes across as an old bruiser, a survivor, a winner, he's taken on all comers including the Prime Minister and he remains the undefeated commie, the Lonsdale Belt-holder of Whitehall.

How did Katie get on?

Don't be silly. Magic doesn't happen. Her LinkedIn entry reads:

Katie Davis Retired September 2012 – Present (3 months) Director General and Managing Director NHS Informatics UK Department of Health Government Agency; 1001-5000 employees; Government Administration industry July 2011 – August 2012 (1 year 2 months) London, United Kingdom ...

Gone. Like James Hall. And Ian Watmore, "the Vicar's Husband", as he calls himself. And Christine Connelly. All gone.

They're gone and Sir David's still there. And still nobody's dupe.

The government are trying to get their Electoral Registration and Administration Bill through parliament. In the vain hope of achieving computerised identity assurance they want to cross-match DWP's hopeless National Insurance number database with other central government files. HMRC have fallen in with it. And the Department for Education. But you won't see any NHS records being used. You won't see Sir David associating himself with this illegal activity. Or with losers.

And now the Government Digital Service (GDS) have published their Government Digital Strategy. This strategy covers all of central government and GDS are in charge. They say. But what's this we read on p.4?

The strategy does not cover local government services, the NHS, or ways to increase the digital capability of UK citizens. It also does not deal with the expansion of the broadband network which is being led by Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).

Once again, clean hands, the wily Sir David is leaving the losers to lose all by themselves.

Government Digital Strategy is Volume 2 of Martha Lane Fox's October 2010 Directgov 2010 and beyond: revolution not evolution. Here's a taste of what it said in Volume 1:

Directgov should own the citizen experience of digital public services and be tasked with driving a 'service culture' across government which could, for example, challenge any policy and practice that undermines good service design ... It seems to me that the time is now to use the Internet to shift the lead in the design of services from the policy and legal teams to the end users ... Directgov SWAT teams ... should be given a remit to support and challenge departments and agencies ... We must give these SWAT teams the necessary support to challenge any policy and legal barriers which stop services being designed around user needs ... I recommend that all digital teams in the Cabinet Office - including Digital Delivery, Digital Engagement and Directgov - are brought together under a new CEO for Digital. This person should have the controls and powers to gain absolute authority over the user experience across all government online services ... and the power to direct all government online spend. The CEO for Digital should also have the controls and powers to direct set and enforce standards across government departments ...

It's all a bit Machiavellian. Or just plain batty. You wouldn't think Ms Lane Fox's ideas would get through to government policy.

But they have. There they all are in GDS's bossy little Government Digital Strategy, a self-important document that actually struts as you read it:

This strategy sets out how the government will become digital by default ... All departments will ensure that they have the right levels of digital capability in-house, including specialist skills. Cabinet Office will support improved digital capability across departments ... [not round at the Department of Health, they won't] Cabinet Office will help departments to recruit suitably skilled individuals. Newly appointed Service Managers will be supported by Cabinet Office through a specialist training programme run by the Government Digital Service. This will include the hands-on process of designing and prototyping a digital service ... Government digital services are inconsistent and often do not meet the standards that users expect. To ensure that users receive a consistently high-quality digital experience from government, Cabinet Office will develop a service standard for all digital services. No new or redesigned service will go live unless they meet this standard ... Cabinet Office will lead in the definition and delivery of a new suite of common technology platforms which will underpin the new generation of digital services ... Cabinet Office will lead in the definition and delivery of a range of common cross-government technology platforms, in consultation with departments to ensure they meet business needs. These will underpin the new generation of digital services. Departments will be expected to use these for new and redesigned services, unless a specific case for exemption is agreed ... Government Digital Service will: • offer specialist digital expertise to interpret existing legislation In a few areas, laws made before the digital age can severely constrain the development of simple, convenient digital services. For example, HMRC have to provide tax coding notifications on paper rather than by electronic channels. Cabinet Office will work with departments to identify these potential barriers and ways to remove them ... [name three Constitutional lawyers working at GDS] Transactional services and information are the primary focus of our digital by default approach ... [in that case it's a shame that GDS can't provide any identity assurance because without that they can't support any transactions] The guidance and tools supporting the [digital by default] standard will help service owners to design trusted, cost-effective government services that are embraced by users and meet their needs first time. Government Digital Service will ensure there is a common understanding across government of what outcomes are required to meet the standard. This understanding must be shared by everyone involved in the development and life of a new or redesigned digital service ... A new Digital Leaders Network was established in early 2012 to drive forward the digital agenda across government. The network is run by the Government Digital Service ...

This document of GDS's is the result of a class of computer-obsessed juveniles talking to themselves and making plans which presuppose powers that they simply don't possess. God knows what a psychiatrist would make of it. Does Sir David still provide mental health services in England?

The Department of Health has been Katie Davisless for some time now. That, and GDS's fantasy strategy

Does Sir David still provide mental health services in England?

12 October 2011, Less for more:

First Katie worked for James and Ian. Then Ian left and so did Katie. When James left as well, Katie stopped working for Ian and went to work for James. Then James left and Sarah took over. There was no room for Katie so she went back to working for Ian. Until Christine left and now Katie finds herself working for David. Or is it the other way around? ... In 2007 she moved to the Identity & Passport Service (IPS), where she was appointed Executive Director of Strategy. After three years of her strategy, IPS imploded ... Had Ian Watmore at last managed to assert his authority over the Department of Health? Who knows. But one way and another, Christine Connelly was replaced by Katie Davis ...

Last seen, Katie Davis was the Cabinet Office's representative at the heart of the Department of Health. Her task? To stop money pouring down the NHS's National Programme for IT (NPfIT, £12 billion) and to get Sir David Nicholson under control.

Sir David Nicholson KCB CBE is Chief Executive of the English National Health Service and Chief Executive of the NHS Commissioning Board. "Nicholson joined the NHS on graduation, and then the Communist Party of Great Britain. He remained a member of the party until 1983". That's what it says in his Wikipedia entry and presumably it's there to be quoted.

PRESS RELEASE: GOV.UK/digital by default – 17 questions for Mr Maude

The following press release has been issued:

PRESS RELEASE

To:

Home Office

OIG (re US-VISIT)

IDABC (re OSCIE)

China (re Golden Shield)

Pakistan (re NADRA)

FBI (re NGI)

UIDAI (re Aadhaar)

Agencies

GOV.UK/digital by default – 17 questions for Mr Maude

17 October 2012

Francis Maude, Cabinet Office Minister, has announced today that public services are in future to be delivered on-line: "... today marks the start of a new way of delivering public services digitally. GOV.UK is a platform for future digital innovation".

Public services are to become “digital by default”, to use the term popularised by Martha Lane Fox, the Prime Minister’s digital champion, who first proposed the development of GOV.UK.

Digital by default is to be delivered via GOV.UK, a website developed by the Government Digital Service (GDS). The chief executive of GDS is ex-Guardian man Mike Bracken, who is also the senior responsible officer owner for identity assurance, please see below.

17 questions for Mr Maude:

1. “Digital by default” means replacing people with computers. How many public servants will be made redundant and how much money will the taxpayer save?

2. Between eight and ten million adults in the UK have still never used the web. Will they be excluded by default from public services?

3. GOV.UK is to be hosted in the cloud by Skyscape Cloud Services Ltd, a start-up which has not yet submitted any accounts to Companies House, which has no company secretary and only one director, a Mr Jeremy Robin Sanders, who also owns 100% of the £1,000 paid-up share capital in the company. What reason is there to believe that Skyscape are reliable, competent and big enough for this enormous task?

4. Starting from Skyscape’s own website it is easy to work out where its data centre is. ARK Continuity Ltd, the property company that built it, even provide a map how to get there. GOV.UK is an important national asset. How will our data be kept secure?

5. HMRC also, like GDS, intend to store our data with Skyscape. Will the Minister please comment on the professionalism of Whitehall procurement which entrusts national assets to a one-man company the location of whose servers is revealed on the web for all to see including terrorists?

6. Even with the big cloud services companies like Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Apple it is commonly understood that cloud computing entails the customer – in this case GDS and HMRC – losing control of their data. Their data may be stored on any machines anywhere in the world and managed by staff the customer has no control over. Why is Whitehall following the fashion and embracing cloud computing?

7. In connection with cloud computing, Microsoft and Google have warned the British public that under the powers of the USA PATRIOT Act and other legislation the FBI can demand to see any data stored by any US company anywhere in the world. These powers extend to non-US companies which also happen to operate a substantial business in the US, e.g. QinetiQ. Does the Minister wish to join Microsoft and Google in warning the British public that their GOV.UK data can be inspected by the US authorities?

8. Individuals and companies already have a tool for transacting with the government on-line – the Government Gateway – and have done for the past ten years and more. How can throwing away that tried and tested tool and replacing it with GOV.UK be called a saving?

9. The Government Gateway has tried and tested identity assurance procedures which minimise on-line fraud and error. Individuals and companies have user IDs issued to them by DWP, who operate the gateway. GDS are said to want to throw away that security and use Facebook, Google and Twitter user IDs instead. What reason is there to believe that these social network user IDs are as reliable as the Government Gateway’s?

10. ... and what qualifications do GDS have to make these foreign companies which pay very little UK tax, not to mention Mr Jeremy Robin Sanders, a part of the British Constitution?

11. GDS are also said to want to take advantage of the logon details the public use for on-line banking to help with identity assurance. UK banks tend to have strong security but nevertheless the problem of on-line fraud persists. Given which, what is the benefit of incorporating the banks’ identity assurance procedures into GOV.UK?

12. Operating through the Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS), GDS are trying to issue everyone with PDSs, personal data stores. The provisions for PDSs are part of a BIS initiative called midata and statutory powers to mandate PDSs are tucked away in the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill currently going through Parliament. Would the Minister confirm that a PDS is no more than the software equivalent of an ID card and that PDSs are the real vehicle for identity assurance advocated by GDS?

13. On 5 September 2012, GDS, BIS and the Foreign Office hosted an event at which GCHQ explained how badly British companies deal with cybercrime. Why is GDS simultaneously trying to exacerbate the problem by putting all public services on-line?

14. CESG is the information assurance arm of GCHQ and has published recommendations on the requirements for the secure delivery of on-line public services (RSDOPS). Will the Minister please show the public the documentation proving that GOV.UK satisfies RSDOPS?

15. All public services are on-line in Estonia and in 2007 Russia found it easy as a result to bring the country to its knees with a simple distributed denial of service attack. What is to stop the same fate befalling the UK if digital by default succeeds?

16. This is not the first time digital by default has been tried in the UK. Back in 2005 when Tony Blair called for joined up government, Sir Gus O’Donnell and Ian Watmore devised a programme called “transformational government”. That failed principally because the other departments of state wouldn’t co-operate with the Cabinet Office. What is there to make them co-operate this time?

17. Universal Credit (UC) is an important coalition government policy designed to spring the poverty trap and make work pay, for millions of benefits claimants. The biggest risk faced by UC according to Lord Freud, the DWP Minister responsible, is the lack of identity assurance. Control over its own identity assurance was wrested away from DWP by GDS. DWP couldn’t make any progress on the matter as a result, and GDS haven’t made any progress either. It looks as though the needs of real people are being side-lined while a few senior civil servants indulge their fascination with computers. Would the Minister care to comment?

It is timely to pose these questions today, the day on which GOV.UK goes live. Or next Monday 22 October 2012 when GDS are due to make a major announcement about identity assurance. Or the following Friday 26 October 2012 when Whitehall's G-Cloud team (government cloud) also have a major announcement to make.

ARK Continuity Ltd, by the way, boast the Rt Hon The Baroness Manningham-Buller, formerly the Director General of MI5, as a non-Executive Director.

---

About David Moss
David Moss has worked as an IT consultant since 1981. The past 9 years have been spent campaigning against the Home Office's plans to introduce government ID cards into the UK. It must now be admitted that the Home Office are much better at convincing people that these plans are a bad idea than anyone else, including David Moss.

Press contacts: David Moss, BCSL@blueyonder.co.uk

PRESS RELEASE: GOV.UK/digital by default – 17 questions for Mr Maude

The following press release has been issued:

PRESS RELEASE

To:

Home Office

OIG (re US-VISIT)

IDABC (re OSCIE)

China (re Golden Shield)

Pakistan (re NADRA)

FBI (re NGI)

UIDAI (re Aadhaar)

Agencies

GOV.UK/digital by default – 17 questions for Mr Maude

17 October 2012

Five questions for the G-Cloud team, champions of cloud computing in the 21st century skyscape of UK government

30 September 2012, posted on the G-Cloud blog here and here. The "Eleanor" addressed here is Eleanor Stewart, the main spokesman for G-Cloud since Ian Watmore and Chris Chant left Whitehall:

[Skyscape has subsequently changed its name to UKCloud: "London – August 1, 2016 – Skyscape Cloud Services Limited, the easy to adopt, easy to use and easy to leave assured cloud services company, has today renamed and relaunched as UKCloud Ltd (www.ukcloud.com), to reinforce the company’s exclusive focus on supporting the UK public sector in the digital transformation of services".]

dmossesq says: Your comment is awaiting moderation.  September 30, 2012 at 7:21 am This business about Skyscape, the Cloudstore and GDS is fascinating, Eleanor, thank you. And I note that HMRC also have contracted for cloud services with Skyscape. Just a few questions. Skyscape is too young to have filed any accounts yet with Companies House, so we have no idea about its P&L and its balance sheet. On the other hand, we do know from Companies House that Skyscape’s registered office is at Hartham Park, Hartham, Corsham, Wilts SN13 0RP. And that it has a paid up share capital of just £1,000. The company turns out to have just one director, a Mr JR Sanders. And just one shareholder, the same Mr JR Sanders. Q1: just how small does a company have to be to fall below the exacting standards for inclusion in the Cloudstore? Q2: GDS and HMRC seem to have contracted not so much with one company as with one man. Do you think that’s wise? Skyscape claim to be in some sort of an “alliance” with five other companies including ARK Continuity. ARK Continuity’s registered address is Hartham Park, Hartham, Corsham, Wilts SN13 0RP. One of its directors, a Mr JP Thomas, who owns £3.20 of ARK’s £16 issued share capital, used to own one share in Skyscape, but transferred it to Mr JR Sanders on 19 April 2012. Q3: just what does this “alliance” amount to? ARK is basically a property company and on its website it proudly displays its Spring Park data centre at Hartham Park, Hartham, Corsham, Wilts SN13 0RP. They provide a map of how to get there and helpfully add that the MoD have secure facilities nearby. Q4: GOV.UK and HMRC’s Skyscape contracts cover important national assets and if the blabbermouths at ARK have given away their current location could you arrange for them to be moved? Obviously you’re busy and this might be too much of an imposition in the case of a traditional data centre. But I understand that with cloud computing you just press a button and the application disappears from one virtual server and effortlessly spins up immediately on another one. Q5: Is that correct?

Substantially the same comment has been posted to the Government Digital Service (GDS) blog here and here.

Comments will only appear on the G-Cloud and GDS blogs after moderation by them and only if they want the comments to appear.

Five questions for the G-Cloud team, champions of cloud computing in the 21st century skyscape of UK government

30 September 2012, posted on the G-Cloud blog here and here. The "Eleanor" addressed here is Eleanor Stewart, the main spokesman for G-Cloud since Ian Watmore and Chris Chant left Whitehall:

[Skyscape has subsequently changed its name to UKCloud: "London – August 1, 2016 – Skyscape Cloud Services Limited, the easy to adopt, easy to use and easy to leave assured cloud services company, has today renamed and relaunched as UKCloud Ltd (www.ukcloud.com), to reinforce the company’s exclusive focus on supporting the UK public sector in the digital transformation of services".]

dmossesq says: Your comment is awaiting moderation.  September 30, 2012 at 7:21 am This business about Skyscape, the Cloudstore and GDS is fascinating, Eleanor, thank you. And I note that HMRC also have contracted for cloud services with Skyscape. Just a few questions. Skyscape is too young to have filed any accounts yet with Companies House, so we have no idea about its P&L and its balance sheet. On the other hand, we do know from Companies House that Skyscape’s registered office is at Hartham Park, Hartham, Corsham, Wilts SN13 0RP. And that it has a paid up share capital of just £1,000. The company turns out to have just one director, a Mr JR Sanders. And just one shareholder, the same Mr JR Sanders. Q1: just how small does a company have to be to fall below the exacting standards for inclusion in the Cloudstore? Q2: GDS and HMRC seem to have contracted not so much with one company as with one man. Do you think that’s wise? Skyscape claim to be in some sort of an “alliance” with five other companies including ARK Continuity. ARK Continuity’s registered address is Hartham Park, Hartham, Corsham, Wilts SN13 0RP. One of its directors, a Mr JP Thomas, who owns £3.20 of ARK’s £16 issued share capital, used to own one share in Skyscape, but transferred it to Mr JR Sanders on 19 April 2012. Q3: just what does this “alliance” amount to? ARK is basically a property company and on its website it proudly displays its Spring Park data centre at Hartham Park, Hartham, Corsham, Wilts SN13 0RP. They provide a map of how to get there and helpfully add that the MoD have secure facilities nearby. Q4: GOV.UK and HMRC’s Skyscape contracts cover important national assets and if the blabbermouths at ARK have given away their current location could you arrange for them to be moved? Obviously you’re busy and this might be too much of an imposition in the case of a traditional data centre. But I understand that with cloud computing you just press a button and the application disappears from one virtual server and effortlessly spins up immediately on another one. Q5: Is that correct?

Substantially the same comment has been posted to the Government Digital Service (GDS) blog here and here.

Comments will only appear on the G-Cloud and GDS blogs after moderation by them and only if they want the comments to appear.

midata, the loneliest initiative in Whitehall – 8

BIS's midata initiative raises two questions for you.

Would you trust a complete stranger to store all your personal data?

And would you trust a lot of other complete strangers

(BIS's currently non-existent applications developers)

to process that data?

You might. If you're mad.

--- o O o ---

Coverage in the media of the Department for Business Innovation and Skills's lonely midata initiative remains scant.

The BBC reported on 22 August 2012, in 'Midata project plan for compulsory customer data', that ...

Consumer Minister Norman Lamb said: "It's clear to me that giving consumers the right to access their own transaction data promises huge opportunities for both consumers themselves and UK businesses."

... without pausing to ask how it's clear to Norman Lamb when it isn't clear to anyone else.

On 23 August 2012 ComputerWorldUK published 'Government threatens legal action against midata laggards'. Clearly the days of midata being a friendly voluntary initiative are long gone.

Retail Gazette carried an odd article on 30 August 2012, 'Why are retailers so afraid of Midata?' – odd, because there's no evidence that retailers are afraid of midata. Why would they be?

And then there's this week's Economist, 'Shameless self-promotion – Britain wants to lead the world in exploiting consumer data':

Britain is already “streets ahead” of most countries in liberating consumer data, says Liz Brandt of Ctrl-Shift, a marketing consultancy ...

Ctrl-Shift? Ring a bell? It should, please see 'The case for midata – the answer is a mooncalf'. Someone has posted a comment on the Economist website advising the magazine and its readers who Ctrl-Shift are:

The point of quoting Ctrl-Shift here is presumably to introduce an element of independent objectivity. Ctrl-Shift Ltd was incorporated on 26 January 2009, according to Companies House. Alan Mitchell was appointed a Director on 13 May 2009 and William Heath on 16 July 2010. Mr Heath's appointment was terminated on 10 May 2012. Mydex Ltd was incorporated on 18 February 2008 according to Companies House. Alan Mitchell is Head of Strategy and William Heath is Chairman, according to the Mydex website. In their report The new personal data landscape Ctrl-Shift discuss the Personal Data Stores (PDSs) that would be needed for midata and recommend the PDS supplier Mydex. In their 3 November 2011 press release about midata, the Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) list the 19 commercial organisations that have agreed to collaborate with them on midata. The list includes Mydex. At the 9 August 2012 open forum on midata held by BIS, Kirstin Green, a Deputy Director at BIS, said that William Heath (ex of Ctrl-Shift and still Chairman of Mydex) is on the BIS Strategy Board for midata. In this case, no element of independence has been introduced. The Economist find themselves effectively quoting midata saying that midata is a Good Thing.

The fact that William Heath is on the midata strategy board is news but nothing else is, not for long-time DMossEsq readers.

In their 3 November 2011 press release, BIS listed 19 commercial organisations who had signed up to midata. No-one else has signed up since to this lonely initiative, even after the government threats of legal action reported by ComputerWorldUK.

Among those 19 was Mydex, Mr Heath's company, the company promoted by Ctrl-Shift, Mr Heath's ex-company, which is a paid consultant to BIS.

What readers may not know is that the Technology Strategy Board (TSB) have invested in a number of companies including Mydex, please see p.24 of their document, 'Ensuring trust in digital services'. Pump-priming, fine, funding R&D, government "picking winners", no problem with that.

The TSB organised an exhibition of the products of these R&D companies on 31 October 2011, just a few days before the BIS press release. The event is reported by ex-Guardian man Mike Bracken on the Cabinet Office's Government Digital Service blog, 'Establishing trust in digital services'. We attendees were treated at the same time to a number of talks given by GDS, including a talk by Francis Maude himself.

The subject of these talks was identity assurance or "IdA", as the Cabinet Office call it.

HMRC want to make all their services available on-line and preferably only on-line, said Joan Wood, Director, Online Service & Digital Development at HMRC. DWP want to make the Universal Credit system on-line only, said Steve Dover, DWP Corporate Director Universal Credit Business and IT Solutions.

But how can HMRC and DWP achieve that if they don't know who they're dealing with at the other end of the line? Where does the IdA come from? The same question could be asked of midata. And the same answer could be given – what IdA needs is for everyone in the UK to have a "Personal Data Inventory" (the BIS name for it) or "Personal Data Store" (everyone else's name for it).

Putting all public services on-line is the old Tony Blair/Cabinet Office/Gus O'Donnell/Ian Watmore Transformational Government/joined-up government plan. That plan collapsed years ago, partly because it depended on ID cards and the Home Office's misbegotten ID card scheme failed.

The Cabinet Office are trying to breathe new life into Transformational Government through the G-Cloud and GDS initiatives much discussed on DMossEsq and, it seems, through midata. We may not have ID cards but the idea is that we should have PDIs/PDSs instead, please see para.2.19, p.24 of BIS's midata 2012 review and consultation:

A ‘Personal Data Inventory’ has been proposed, with the aim of giving consumers clear information about the types of data which organisations hold about them. This work is still in development by the midata programme participants, but broadly the proposal is that to gain access to their Personal Data Inventory, the customer would have to log-in to a secure website where the Personal Data Inventory would contain a simple explanation of each category of data and if, and how, the data can be accessed by the consumer. The Personal Data Inventory is likely to contain data such as address and contact details, existing tariffs/contracts, payment methods, items purchased, when, value, amount spent per year, usage data.

The midata question was posed by Rory Cellan-Jones of the BBC, "why is the government getting involved?". Professor Shadbolt couldn't answer it. Not even Norman Lamb MP can answer it. Not so far. But do we perhaps see an answer now – midata is the ID cards scheme resurrected? That might explain why BIS want to take powers to implement a scheme whose stated benefits are some of them footling and others no more than wishful thinking, neither of which provides a sound basis on which to invest public money.

Take a look at BIS's 'A midata future: 10 ways it could shape your choices', particularly at example #2, Getting a new job:

midata' could allow individuals to have access to information held about them by various organisations. When getting a new job, an individual could use verification programmes to send necessary proofs to a new employer. For example, instead of making copies and going to the post office, a new employee could get their driving licence, educational qualifications, CRB check and personal identity all by ticking a set of boxes and clicking 'send'. This would save money for employers who won't have to deal with lengthy and expensive hiring processes.

"Establishing trust in digital services" is the Cabinet Office's apt name for the problem. And midata is not the solution.

Would you trust a complete stranger (Mydex, or whoever) to store all your personal data?

And would you trust a lot of other complete strangers (BIS's currently non-existent applications developers) to process that data?

You might. If you're mad. The rest of us will "make copies and go to the post office" and any sensible employer will retain his or her "expensive hiring processes" – otherwise they won't have a clue who they've just hired.

midata, the loneliest initiative in Whitehall – 8

BIS's midata initiative raises two questions for you.

Would you trust a complete stranger to store all your personal data?

And would you trust a lot of other complete strangers

(BIS's currently non-existent applications developers)

to process that data?

You might. If you're mad.

--- o O o ---

Coverage in the media of the Department for Business Innovation and Skills's lonely midata initiative remains scant.

The BBC reported on 22 August 2012, in 'Midata project plan for compulsory customer data', that ...

Consumer Minister Norman Lamb said: "It's clear to me that giving consumers the right to access their own transaction data promises huge opportunities for both consumers themselves and UK businesses."

... without pausing to ask how it's clear to Norman Lamb when it isn't clear to anyone else.

Cloud computing – we hold these truths to be self-evident ... and we're plumb wrong

Much of government IT is a mess.

That's the problem.

And cloud computing is the solution. What the UK Constitution needs is a government cloud, a G-Cloud.

Is that true? You know it is – it's a no-brainer.

Cloud computing is cheaper than the alternative and it always will be. You know that. It's more flexible – you can spin up new capacity whenever volumes rise, just like that, and switch it off at no cost the minute it's not needed. You don't need to worry, the level of security is higher than could be achieved in-house, someone else does the backups for you and keeps all the applications you have licences for up to date.

That's the sales pitch of the big suppliers of cloud computing services – Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Apple, ... And coincidentally it's the UK government's IT strategy. There can be no doubt.

Now consider this 6 August 2012 article in Wired magazine by Mat Honan:

In the space of one hour, my entire digital life was destroyed. First my Google account was taken over, then deleted. Next my Twitter account was compromised, and used as a platform to broadcast racist and homophobic messages. And worst of all, my AppleID account was broken into, and my hackers used it to remotely erase all of the data on my iPhone, iPad, and MacBook. In many ways, this was all my fault. My accounts were daisy-chained together. Getting into Amazon let my hackers get into my Apple ID account, which helped them get into Gmail, which gave them access to Twitter. Had I used two-factor authentication for my Google account, it’s possible that none of this would have happened, because their ultimate goal was always to take over my Twitter account and wreak havoc. Lulz. Had I been regularly backing up the data on my MacBook, I wouldn’t have had to worry about losing more than a year’s worth of photos, covering the entire lifespan of my daughter, or documents and e-mails that I had stored in no other location. Those security lapses are my fault, and I deeply, deeply regret them. But what happened to me exposes vital security flaws in several customer service systems, most notably Apple’s and Amazon’s ...

Where was Apple's security? And Amazon's? Where were their backups? Why can't they just go to their backups and retrieve Mr Honan's digital life?

Still. Don't let this dent your confidence in G-Cloud.

Cloud computing – we hold these truths to be self-evident ... and we're plumb wrong

Much of government IT is a mess.

That's the problem.

And cloud computing is the solution. What the UK Constitution needs is a government cloud, a G-Cloud.

Is that true? You know it is – it's a no-brainer.

Cloud computing is cheaper than the alternative and it always will be. You know that. It's more flexible – you can spin up new capacity whenever volumes rise, just like that, and switch it off at no cost the minute it's not needed. You don't need to worry, the level of security is higher than could be achieved in-house, someone else does the backups for you and keeps all the applications you have licences for up to date.

That's the sales pitch of the big suppliers of cloud computing services – Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Apple, ... And coincidentally it's the UK government's IT strategy. There can be no doubt.

Now consider this 6 August 2012 article in Wired magazine by Mat Honan:

The agility with which Francis Maude and Sir Bob Kerslake are being parted from our money

Leafing through Computer Weekly the other day as no doubt we all were revealed this article by Mark Ballard, Soldiers nail data for agile offensive on $6bn cock-up:

... the effort is part of an emergency reform of IT projects using agile methods, on orders issued by the Department [of] Defense last year after 11 major computer systems went $6bn over budget and 31 years behind schedule.

$6 billion over budget? 31 years behind schedule? So it doesn't just happen in the UK:

The IPPS system was started in 2010 as a clean slate on another spoiled clean slate. It replaced the DoD's previous attempt at an ERP pay system, the Defense Integrated Military Human Resource System, after 12 years work that had cost $1bn. HR system Contractor Northr[o]p Grumman, the fifth largest US defence contractor, was kept on to develop IPPS.

"IPPS" is the US Army's Integrated Personnel and Pay System – you didn't want to know that – and "ERP" is Enterprise Resource Planning, which is an earlier software engineering philosophy which was going to solve all our problems.

Earlier than "agile methods". Agile methods are the latest cure-all. You'd think after a while the gullible would stop falling for cure-alls and that they would notice that the same suppliers hang on year in year out, but no.

What went wrong with the ERP approach to paying the army? It's highly technical, of course, but readers should not be patronised by having the difficulties hidden from them:

"For this approach to work, the first increment is focused on the creation of authoritative data," a US Army spokeswoman told Computer Weekly. "Subsequent increments will field applications utilising the authoritative data," she said. Auditors had blamed data problems for wrecking the US military's ambitious plan to rip out pay and logistics systems and replace them with all-encompassing Enterprise Resource Planning systems by vendors such as Oracle and SAP. But with hundreds of different systems being merged, nobody had ensured their data would be compatible.

This won't have occurred to you but apparently, it has been discovered, recent high-level research suggests, if the data is wrong or not "authoritative" that can have an adverse effect on the system. Also, while several billion dollars were changing hands, no-one seems to have noticed that different systems store data in different ways that are not what we software engineers call "compatible".

If only we'd known before.

Actually, we did. Chris Chant told us. Remember his unchallenged 23-point list of what's wrong with UK government IT? Point #19 was "Government should use small and medium size suppliers whose IT practices are more 'agile' but instead they stick with the big ponderous suppliers".

"Agile" is the solution to the problems of ERP, which was the solution to the problems of structured systems design, which was the solution to the problems of the rhythm method.

And what does "agile" mean? What do agile software engineering methods look like?

Ask GDS, the Government Digital Service. They're the IT frontiersmen at the Cabinet Office having praise heaped on them by Francis Maude and Sir Bob Kerslake. They're going to transform government and deliver more for less following the digital by default precepts of Martha Lane Fox.

Let Mike Beaven of GDS explain what it's like to be Riding the Paradigm – where agile meets programme:

There are challenges to running an agile approach to delivery inside a larger organisation where agile is not yet fully understood. We are frequently asked how we approach these challenges and manage them here at GDS ... ... i[n] terms of Cabinet Office and GDS ... we have a pretty established and successful agile software delivery engine. Whilst it is relatively new it has become a firmly established way of working beyond the core delivery teams, and lean/agile methods are used across GDS in a variety of teams ... The base premise here has been to make the programme processes lighter and more agile, let the project management office take the load from delivery managers but still be in control of our agile delivery streams in terms of money, risk and delivery expectations. We have made some good progress in terms of the way new work is initiated, assessed and sized up ready for progress onto delivery ... We are still learning in terms of how we manage the in-flight delivery work and get a view on risks without disrupting the flow of delivery ... Our main learning so far: You need different methods for different areas of managing delivery – one size does not fit all. Backing to implement programme techniques into agile teams – trust is key and talking with delivery managers beats a written report. Control areas like risk, people allocation and spend control centrally – let one team do the worrying. For the time being though we will be on that paradigm.

The encounter group facilitator in you will want to thank Mike for that contribution but there's still a niggling sense, isn't there, that it's not clear how the troops are going to be paid, or whatever.

What, for example, explains the enormous pride with which ex-Guardian man Mike Bracken writes, in Digital a key component for Civil Service Reform Plan:

The Minister for the Cabinet Office Francis Maude today [19 June 2012] launched the Civil Service Reform Plan and we were glad to welcome him and Sir Bob Kerslake, Head of the Civil Service, to GDS this morning in advance of the announcement. You can see them chatting to GDS staff Alice Newton and Jordan Hatch in the video below. I am very heartened to see that Digital by Default is a core theme running through the Civil Service Reform plan [otherwise I wouldn't have a job] with the explicit acceptance by the Minister that “central government wherever possible must become a digital organisation. These days the best service organisations deliver online everything that can be delivered online. This cuts their costs dramatically and allows access to information and services at times and in ways convenient to the users rather than the providers” ... So it’s a good day for digital in government and I look forward to taking part in the debates that will follow. The Minister and Sir Bob Kerslake will be back in GDS this Thursday 21 June from 4.00 to 5.00, to take part in a Facebook discussion so Civil Servants can give feedback directly on the plan. You can take part on the Civil Service Facebook page and you can ask Sir Bob Kerslake questions directly on Twitter by tweeting him (@sirbobkerslake) using the hashtag #asksirbob ...

All well and good, Mike, but suppose we have to tweet @sirbobkerslake using the hashtag #tellsirbob? What do we tell him? How do agile methods help?

For the answer to that, we have to turn to Chris Heathcote, one of the stakhanovites toiling away in the GDS boiler room, whose blog post The speed of change at last casts light on the matter. There he treats us to the hero's tale of how he went over the top and responded to a tweet about when the clocks change.

Not only did one Caspar Aremi feel that the government website devoted to this matter should show the columns as rows and the rows as columns but he even found the time in his busy schedule to tweet about it. And Mr Heathcote rose to the occasion. Scary stuff. But that's not all – the crucial point is that, presumably because he had nothing better to do, he did it the same day as receiving the tweet. Agile, or what.

Therein lies ex-Guardian man Mike Bracken's pride – at the accomplishment of one of his staff who can respond quickly to a footling request.

And therein lies the confidence that Francis Maude's future and Sir Bob Kerslake's, and our tax money, are all in good hands. "Agile" means sleeping easy of a night, one size does not fit all, trust is key, let the GDS team do the worrying. And the spending.

----------

Mr Heathcote's claim to have demonstrated the true benefits of agile methods is attracting a certain amount of contumely. "One change, one day thanks to Agile? I feel sorry for whoever is in charge when real music starts to play!", says Andres Crespo. Quite. On that day, maybe the US military will give Messrs Bracken, Beaven and Heathcote a job. And Bob Kamall and Paul Downey.

The agility with which Francis Maude and Sir Bob Kerslake are being parted from our money

Leafing through Computer Weekly the other day as no doubt we all were revealed this article by Mark Ballard, Soldiers nail data for agile offensive on $6bn cock-up:

... the effort is part of an emergency reform of IT projects using agile methods, on orders issued by the Department [of] Defense last year after 11 major computer systems went $6bn over budget and 31 years behind schedule.

$6 billion over budget? 31 years behind schedule? So it doesn't just happen in the UK:

Cabinet Office soon to be Watless

Cabinet Office press release, London 16 May 2012:

Ian Watmore to leave the Civil Service Ian Watmore, Permanent Secretary of the Cabinet Office, is leaving the Civil Service at the end of June, after a seven year career in the Civil Service, six of them as Permanent Secretary in three different roles, and a long career in the private sector. He is returning to his home in the North West of England to focus on non-executive and spousal roles in charity, sports, academic and church activities ...

Efficiency and reform, Whitehall-style
Less for more
Whitehall – misfeasance in public office
Whitehall – SNAFU
...

Update:
17 May 2012: ‘Aggressive ministers’ blamed after mandarin quits
6 August 2012: Cabinet Office press release – "The new Permanent Secretary of the Cabinet Office, Richard Heaton, takes up his new role today ..."


Updated 17.4.16

Four years later, Watmore to return?


Updated 20.9.16

Yes, Watmore to return, in 10 days time.

Cabinet Office soon to be Watless

Cabinet Office press release, London 16 May 2012:

Ian Watmore to leave the Civil Service Ian Watmore, Permanent Secretary of the Cabinet Office, is leaving the Civil Service at the end of June, after a seven year career in the Civil Service, six of them as Permanent Secretary in three different roles, and a long career in the private sector. He is returning to his home in the North West of England to focus on non-executive and spousal roles in charity, sports, academic and church activities ...

Efficiency and reform, Whitehall-style
Less for more
Whitehall – misfeasance in public office
Whitehall – SNAFU
...

Update:
17 May 2012: ‘Aggressive ministers’ blamed after mandarin quits
6 August 2012: Cabinet Office press release – "The new Permanent Secretary of the Cabinet Office, Richard Heaton, takes up his new role today ..."


Updated 17.4.16

Four years later, Watmore to return?


Updated 20.9.16

Yes, Watmore to return, in 10 days time.

The good news about cloud computing continues to blow in

HM Government plans to deliver all public services over the web. In particular, Whitehall will store all its data in the G-Cloud – the government cloud – and we parishioners will all access public services through public clouds. (Parishioners who can't use the web will no longer be parishioners.)

Cloud computing, we are told by Whitehall officials and IT salesmen, will be more flexible, cheaper, more secure and more resilient than what is, by implication, the present inflexible, expensive, insecure and non-resilient service.

In witness whereof the reader is referred to the cloud computing section of The Register magazine where he or she may discover that:

• Cloud data fiasco forces bosses to break out the whiteboards – Atlassian team-tracker outage caused by disk failure
• Root canal surgery officially more desirable than cloud migration – Unicorn spotting more likely than app transfer in poll
• iCloud blows away 15 million users for 90 minutes – Normal service has been restored, photo-sharing on the way
• ...

Meanwhile, the runaway train that is the growing popularity of cloud computing is gathering base. El Reg, as the magazine is affectionately known, reported on Sage's plans to move their 6.3 million customers into the cloud. That's 6.3 million people/companies using Sage's estimable product to keep the books. How are the plans going? Wait for it ... get your ticket while there's still time:

At the end of last year Sage had converted just 1,000 of its customers from cloud sceptics to adopters, out of an installed base of 6.3 million.

The good news about cloud computing continues to blow in

HM Government plans to deliver all public services over the web. In particular, Whitehall will store all its data in the G-Cloud – the government cloud – and we parishioners will all access public services through public clouds. (Parishioners who can't use the web will no longer be parishioners.)

Cloud computing, we are told by Whitehall officials and IT salesmen, will be more flexible, cheaper, more secure and more resilient than what is, by implication, the present inflexible, expensive, insecure and non-resilient service.

In witness whereof the reader is referred to the cloud computing section of The Register magazine where he or she may discover that:

• Cloud data fiasco forces bosses to break out the whiteboards – Atlassian team-tracker outage caused by disk failure
• Root canal surgery officially more desirable than cloud migration – Unicorn spotting more likely than app transfer in poll
• iCloud blows away 15 million users for 90 minutes – Normal service has been restored, photo-sharing on the way
• ...

Meanwhile, the runaway train that is the growing popularity of cloud computing is gathering base. El Reg, as the magazine is affectionately known, reported on Sage's plans to move their 6.3 million customers into the cloud. That's 6.3 million people/companies using Sage's estimable product to keep the books. How are the plans going? Wait for it ... get your ticket while there's still time:

At the end of last year Sage had converted just 1,000 of its customers from cloud sceptics to adopters, out of an installed base of 6.3 million.

Cloud computing – told you so

It's happened to Iran. Twice now. If Francis Maude and others have their way, it will happen to the UK.

The Guardian:- Iranian oil ministry hit by cyber-attack Iran's main oil export terminal is cut off from internet after apparent attack on website and communications systems Saeed Kamali Dehghan guardian.co.uk, Monday 23 April 2012 17.10 BST Iran's oil ministry has called a crisis meeting after its main website and internal communications system were hit by an apparent cyber-attack that forced authorities to cut off the country's oil export terminal from the internet. Local news agencies reported on Monday that a virus had struck the computer and communication systems of Iran's main oil export facilities on Kharg Island as well as the internal network and the websites of its oil ministry and subsidiary organisations. The semi-official Mehr news agency quoted ministry officials as saying an investigation was under way. "We are making plans to neutralise this cyber-attack," said the deputy oil minister in charge of civil defence, Hamdollah Mohammadnejad ...

---

• Reuters: Suspected cyber attack hits Iran oil industry
• Wall Street Journal: Cyber-Attack Targets Iran Oil, But Exports Normal
• DMossEsq: Cloud computing is bonkers or, as HMG put it, a "no-brainer"

---

Iran can't protect its main oil refinery from cyber attack. Even Iran. Even its main oil refinery. Dependence on the web seems ill-advised.

Meanwhile HM Government is planning to move all its data into the "cloud", G-Cloud, the government cloud, i.e. the web. That seems equally ill-advised.

Shall we ask HMG please to explain themselves? Can they tell us what Francis Maude, Ian Watmore, Andy Nelson, Chris Chant and Denise McDonagh know that  Iran's top scientists operating on a permanent war footing don't know?

Maybe there's a good answer.

If not, would they please stop this imprudent waste of public money, cancel G-Cloud, cancel IdA, stop playing with techie toys and get on with the job they're paid to do, viz. competent public administration?

Cloud computing – told you so

It's happened to Iran. Twice now. If Francis Maude and others have their way, it will happen to the UK.

The Guardian:- Iranian oil ministry hit by cyber-attack Iran's main oil export terminal is cut off from internet after apparent attack on website and communications systems Saeed Kamali Dehghan guardian.co.uk, Monday 23 April 2012 17.10 BST Iran's oil ministry has called a crisis meeting after its main website and internal communications system were hit by an apparent cyber-attack that forced authorities to cut off the country's oil export terminal from the internet. Local news agencies reported on Monday that a virus had struck the computer and communication systems of Iran's main oil export facilities on Kharg Island as well as the internal network and the websites of its oil ministry and subsidiary organisations. The semi-official Mehr news agency quoted ministry officials as saying an investigation was under way. "We are making plans to neutralise this cyber-attack," said the deputy oil minister in charge of civil defence, Hamdollah Mohammadnejad ...

---

• Reuters: Suspected cyber attack hits Iran oil industry
• Wall Street Journal: Cyber-Attack Targets Iran Oil, But Exports Normal
• DMossEsq: Cloud computing is bonkers or, as HMG put it, a "no-brainer"

---

Iran can't protect its main oil refinery from cyber attack. Even Iran. Even its main oil refinery. Dependence on the web seems ill-advised.

Meanwhile HM Government is planning to move all its data into the "cloud", G-Cloud, the government cloud, i.e. the web. That seems equally ill-advised.

Shall we ask HMG please to explain themselves? Can they tell us what Francis Maude, Ian Watmore, Andy Nelson, Chris Chant and Denise McDonagh know that  Iran's top scientists operating on a permanent war footing don't know?

Maybe there's a good answer.

If not, would they please stop this imprudent waste of public money, cancel G-Cloud, cancel IdA, stop playing with techie toys and get on with the job they're paid to do, viz. competent public administration?