RIP IDA – individual electoral registration

The key to success with regard to IER lies in being boring.

The more boring the better.

No need to say it, it goes without saying, it should be obvious to all but, just in case it isn't obvious to all, IDA is dead.

IDA is the Cabinet Office Identity Assurance programme. And it's dead.

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If all goes well, the media will pay not the slightest attention to the changes promised for 2014 in the way the electoral register is compiled in Great Britain.

Beginning on 10 June 2014, England and Wales will switch from compiling the electoral register on a household basis to individual electoral registration (IER). In Scotland, the equivalent date is 19 September 2014 – the delay there is to cater for the referendum on Scottish independence.

IER will be a yawn and a bore. That's if all goes well. The new electoral register will be ready for the 2015 general election and it will be complete enough and accurate enough not to impugn the legitimacy of the election result.

The Electoral Commission published a readiness report back in October 2013. They've got the forms ready and they just need political approval before Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) send them out to individuals to register. That will be in July 2014 and there will be an accompanying public awareness campaign.

It is to be hoped that that public awareness campaign will be workmanlike, clear, simple and above all uncontroversial. Dull. Worthy. Yawn-inducing, as befits a highly respected, confident and mature democracy.

There are a few worryingly interesting bits of IER.

Confirmation
There is the "confirmation" element, for example:

The Government’s plan for the introduction of IER includes the intention to compare existing electors’ names and addresses on the electoral registers with records held by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) in order to verify the identity of people currently on the registers. This process is known as ‘confirmation’.

EROs will be provided with reports comparing their electoral register records with records on DWP's Customer Information System database (CIS). On the basis of trials already carried out, it is expected that about 75% of the electoral register can be "confirmed" in this way.

How good is CIS?

Back in April 2007 there were about nine million records on CIS that no-one could account for, please see Fraud fear as millions of NI numbers are lost. Surely, you may say, DWP could clean up their data? They already had. Before the clean-up, there were more like 20 million unaccountable records according to David Blunkett.

Back in the old days of the National Identity Scheme/Service (2002-10 RIP) when we were all going to have government-issued identity cards (RIP), the Identity & Passport Service (RIP) were going to build a brand new National Identity Register (RIP). Then they decided to use CIS instead ...

... and then the National Audit Office (para.4.13, p.23) pointed out that they could only use CIS if it met the security standards laid down by CESG, the information assurance arm of GCHQ. Which it didn't, please see the Public Administration Select Committee report Good Governance – effective use of IT, pp.295-304, particularly para.24ff. At which point the whole ID cards project collapsed into obvious chaos.

The Electoral Commission may say that CIS confirmation will "verify the identity of people currently on the registers" but they're just being polite. If there's a mismatch between CIS and the electoral roll, which database is right? Neither of them? Is it the EROs' job to clean up the CIS? No. It's all too interesting. No more chaos. Expect CIS confirmation quietly to disappear.

Verification
In one sense there's nothing new about "verification". It's always been the EROs' job to verify that people are who they say they are and that they are allowed to vote. EROs know how to do that and they will continue to verify the entitlement to vote, boringly it is to be hoped, without fuss and behind the scenes.

But there is supposed to be a new element in 2014, an IER digital system for verification, please see para.1.12 onwards in the readiness report:

1.12 ... [the] Commission has some remaining concerns around the timetable for developing the other significant element of the system - for verifying electors’ personal identifiers under IER ... 1.13 We are aware that some testing of the system has recently taken place ... We understand that there are further tests on the algorithm to be completed ... 1.15 ... the system for verification has not yet been fully tested, and according to the current plans will not have been fully tested until March 2014 ... We understand that the testing programme will be conducted on a rolling basis between now and next March, but the key risk is that it will not be fully clear until then whether the system is fully robust ... 1.17 We have not yet seen a detailed plan for the full testing process, although we understand from officials that this will be shared shortly ... 1.18 It will be important for this testing to demonstrate the ability of the system to cope with the volume of registrations ... We (and EROs) ... await reassurance on this point. 1.19 It is also important for effective and realistic contingency plans to be put in place in the event that problems with the verification system do arise ... We have not yet seen any detailed plans although we are aware that the [Electoral Registration Transformation] Programme team are working on them. We would welcome sight of them when they are available ...

It's not clear from the quotations above what digital identity verification is. The only thing that is clear is that the Commission's welcome for this new component of IER is heavily qualified. That is only to be expected after their experience of the dog's dinner served up by the data-mining pilots.

The suspicion is that what is intended here by "digital identity verification" is something to do with the Government Digital Service's identity assurance scheme, IDA.

IDA was meant to provide us with an "ecosystem" of competing private sector "identity providers". Philip Virgo tells us that there were initially "80 expressions of interest" in joining the IDA framework, please see Who won the battle between DWP and Cabinet Office over ID Policy?. 80 became eight a year or so later in January 2013. By September 2013, eight had become five. And now we're down to two, please see Beta launch for identity assurance this year:

... an official from the IDA programme ... explained that the first two identity providers will start supporting the scheme from the end of November ... These two providers come from a pool of five companies- Digidentity, Experian, Mydex, The Post Office and Verizon- who have signed contracts to deliver IDA services, out of a total of eight companies who were originally on the framework. The official said that they are hoping for new providers to join in and start working on the programme next year ...

We do not know which two "identity providers" now occupy the shrinking "ecosystem".

And we do not know which brave "new providers" might join where 78 have already pulled out.

Perhaps the government could lean on the two banks which it controls, Lloyds and RBS? Let's hope not. We've been here before. There's no upside. It's all risk.

Perhaps the government could invite Facebook to help. Or Google:

Andrew Nash, Google’s Director of Identity, ran us [Francis Maude and ex-Guardian man Mike Bracken] through the current issues facing identity.He explained how Google aim to grow and be part of an ecosystem of identify providers, and encouraged the UK Government to play its part in a federated system. The UK ID Assurance team and Google agreed to work more closely to define our strategy – so look out for future announcements. Andrew also took the opportunity to walk the Minister through the Identity ecosystem.

All far too interesting for the Electoral Commission to let them become involved. Expect digital verification politely, quietly and firmly to be swept under the confirmation carpet.

On-line registration portal
Ditto the on-line registration portal, para.1.21 onwards in the readiness report:

1.21 ... we are concerned that the website which will enable online registration in Great Britain has also not yet been fully tested. 1.22 The current plan indicates that while the user-facing part of the application ... will be developed for the majority of users by the end of October 2013, testing the process that takes place ‘behind’ the screen ... will not be completed until later (likely to be March 2014). As with the verification development work more generally, this is a tight timetable given the intended IER start date in June 2014 and we have not seen a detailed timetable for this testing ... 1.23 We also understand that the technical development work required to allow use of the online application system by certain important groups of electors ... will not be completed until March 2014. 1.24 The [Electoral Registration Transformation Programme] team have assured us that this development work has been fully scoped and timetabled and that they are confident of delivering the work to time. However, ... this remains an important area of concern.

The Electoral Commission hardly need reminding that an on-line registration portal with no identity assurance and no "ID hub" is an invitation to electoral fraud. Unicorns. Too interesting. Drop it. Keep it boring.

Cloud computing
Always keen to follow the latest fad, the Government Digital Service want to store all our data "in the cloud", as they say. They have chosen to use Skyscape and Carrenza.

Storing data in the cloud is the most efficient way of losing control of it.

The Commission may care to look into the current practice of using the cloud for electoral rolls. One company, Halarose, which provides electoral registration services to 80 local authorities, runs its services on Amazon's cloud servers located in the Republic of Ireland.

Do the Commission agree that this raises interesting questions whether our data is properly under the control of the people who owe us voters a duty of care? If the questions are too interesting, perhaps the Commission would look into changing the current lenient procedures which countenance use of the cloud, not just by Halarose but throughout the electoral registration system.

The key to success with regard to IER lies in being boring. The more boring the better.

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Updated 8.1.14
Keep it boring. A simple enough suggestion. So what do the Electoral Commission do? They only go on the radio this morning and announce that we're all going to need photo-ID to vote. That's what.

Far too interesting.

What photo-ID? Passports and photo-ID driving licences. Or a special voting ID card for people who don't have a passport or a photo-ID driving licence. The special voting ID card will be free. "Free"?

If you need photo-ID to vote, why don't you need it to register?

The credit card companies rejected photographs on credit cards in the UK because, based on tests with supermarket staff, that would increase fraud and not reduce it. How would the people manning polling stations fare any better? What happens when you are refused your right to vote because one of these people says you don't look like yourself?

How long before someone points out that if you can register on-line you ought to be able to vote on-line? Perhaps proving your identity on-line using GDS's non-existent identity assurance system? Or, for old-timers, using biometrics.

How long before someone points out that if you need photo-ID to vote, then you must need it to get married? Or to get your children into state education? Or to be given non-emergency state healthcare?

It is strongly suggested that the Electoral Commission conduct trials to see if the benefits of photo-ID voting outweigh the costs. If not, the initiative is counter-productive and disproportionate and should be dropped. There is no loss of face in acknowledging the authority of a large-scale independent trial. The larger and the sooner, the better.

Then, let's hope, we can get back to boring. Please. Boring, boring, boring.

Updated 10.6.14

Today is the first day of individual electoral registration in England and Wales. There is not a single press release about it. Anywhere. Not even on the Electoral Commission's website.

Updated 28.6.14

UK should consider e-voting, elections watchdog urges Rowena Mason, political correspondent The Guardian, Wednesday 26 March 2014 18.31 GMT ... the head of the Electoral Commission, Jenny Watson, warned that the ... long-term trend of falling voter turnout was particularly marked among young people ... ... the election watchdog would examine a range of ways to make voting more accessible, including the "radical" option of internet voting and US-style same-day registration for those not on the electoral roll ... ... "we plan to look at a variety of options, assessing how they will help citizens engage more effectively" ... more could be done to make the system more reflective of wider society ... "an increasingly disenfranchised younger generation" ... ... "Unless our electoral system keeps pace with the way many voters live the rest of their lives – where the way they bank and the way they shop has been transformed – it risks being seen as increasingly alien and outdated, particularly to young voters as they use it for the first time" ...

The claims Jenny Watson makes for on-line voter registration and on-line voting are hypotheses. The potential benefits are great. It is worth testing these hypotheses. And they have been.

Estonia allow internet voting. And the University of Michigan discovered that the system is open to being hijacked – the result of the election may not be decided by the voters. The university had previously discovered the same fault in a proposed eVoting system in Washington DC. And now we hear that Norway have given up on eVoting after some careful testing:

E-voting experiments end in Norway amid security fears BBC News – Technology 27 June 2014 Last updated at 12:12 ... voters' fears about their votes becoming public could undermine democratic processes. Political controversy and the fact that the trials did not boost turnout also led to the experiment ending ... ... criticism was levelled at the encryption scheme used to protect votes being sent across the net ... ... there was no evidence that the trial led to a rise in the overall number of people voting nor that it mobilised new groups, such as young people, to vote ... ... there was also some evidence that a small number of people, 0.75% of all voters, managed to vote twice in 2013 ...

The result of these on-line voting tests is to cast doubt on the hypothesis. It seems to be wrong. On-line voting doesn't boost participation and it introduces dangerous features which undermine the trustworthiness of the election. Conclusion: it is irresponsible to assume that on-line voting is a cure-all.

What about on-line registration to vote?

The Government Digital Service (GDS) introduced an on-line system on 10 June 2014 in pursuit of individual electoral registration in England and Wales. The system collects application details and forwards them to electoral registration officers (EROs) who have to decide whether to register the applicant to vote.

How do the EROs know whether the applicant is who they say are?

GDS have provided a check based on use of the applicant's National Insurance number. That is the same check they use in DVLA's view-driving-record application. And what do the Driver & Vehicle Licensing Agency have to say about it?

Access to the service is currently allowed by matching the user’s data to the driving licence number. We also use an existing link to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to check if the National Insurance Number (NINO) provided matches details held by DWP and HM Revenue & Customs. Whilst this authentication process is fairly quick and straightforward, there are some downsides ... it does not provide us with the level of confidence the user is who they say they are in order to offer them more information such as their photo image or allow them to link to a transactional service.

Again, a perfectly sensible hypothesis, but the test results suggest that it would be irresponsible to rely on on-line voter registration.

Updated 3.7.14

All this febrile raving about photo-id and electronic voting and same-day registration? Too exciting. We need boring.

The Electoral Commission have started their public awareness campaign for individual electoral registration, hat tip Halarose:



30 seconds of total inanity. The postman delivers a letter. Men turn into women half way downstairs to the accompaniment of irritating music and then read the IER information leaflet while they enjoy a cup of tea.

The shoutline? "Make sure you're in".

Congratulations to the Electoral Commission. Perfect. A collector's item. More like that, please.

RIP IDA – individual electoral registration

The key to success with regard to IER lies in being boring.

The more boring the better.

No need to say it, it goes without saying, it should be obvious to all but, just in case it isn't obvious to all, IDA is dead.

IDA is the Cabinet Office Identity Assurance programme. And it's dead.

----------

If all goes well, the media will pay not the slightest attention to the changes promised for 2014 in the way the electoral register is compiled in Great Britain.

Beginning on 10 June 2014, England and Wales will switch from compiling the electoral register on a household basis to individual electoral registration (IER). In Scotland, the equivalent date is 19 September 2014 – the delay there is to cater for the referendum on Scottish independence.

IER will be a yawn and a bore. That's if all goes well. The new electoral register will be ready for the 2015 general election and it will be complete enough and accurate enough not to impugn the legitimacy of the election result.

The Electoral Commission published a readiness report back in October 2013. They've got the forms ready and they just need political approval before Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) send them out to individuals to register. That will be in July 2014 and there will be an accompanying public awareness campaign.

It is to be hoped that that public awareness campaign will be workmanlike, clear, simple and above all uncontroversial. Dull. Worthy. Yawn-inducing, as befits a highly respected, confident and mature democracy.

There are a few worryingly interesting bits of IER.

Whitehall misfeasance – something's up

Jill Sherman is the Whitehall Editor of the Times and she has a scoop in today's paper, please see Whitehall forced to call in the experts:

About one hundred high-powered troubleshooters are to be drafted into Whitehall from the private sector to save the Government’s riskiest projects, The Times has learnt. The experts from management consultants and other industries will help to turn around difficult schemes such as Universal Credit, High Speed rail (HS2), and electronic tagging. They will also help to monitor new contracts and bulk purchasing across the public sector. The move follows months of criticism over the lack of commercial skills within Whitehall after a series of IT disasters and other fiascos that have wasted hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money ...

Someone has clearly finally had enough of Whitehall's unaccountable failure.

We're talking about power here. Specifically about power changing hands. That spells danger. Adroitly handled, it also spells hope.

Whitehall misfeasance – something's up

Jill Sherman is the Whitehall Editor of the Times and she has a scoop in today's paper, please see Whitehall forced to call in the experts:

About one hundred high-powered troubleshooters are to be drafted into Whitehall from the private sector to save the Government’s riskiest projects, The Times has learnt. The experts from management consultants and other industries will help to turn around difficult schemes such as Universal Credit, High Speed rail (HS2), and electronic tagging. They will also help to monitor new contracts and bulk purchasing across the public sector. The move follows months of criticism over the lack of commercial skills within Whitehall after a series of IT disasters and other fiascos that have wasted hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money ...

Someone has clearly finally had enough of Whitehall's unaccountable failure.

We're talking about power here. Specifically about power changing hands. That spells danger. Adroitly handled, it also spells hope.

Whitehall press release – an apology

In a blog post published on 19 December 2013, The peculiar art of the Whitehall press release, DMossEsq accused a Cabinet Office Minister of describing a manifest failure as a success. DMossEsq was wrong and he apologises.

As part of the move to individual electoral registration (IER), the Electoral Commission have reported on an exercise known as "the data-mining pilot". That exercise was a failure. As the Commission say in their report: "The findings from this pilot do not justify the national roll out of data mining" (pp.8 & 60).

The Whitehall press release quotes Rt Hon Greg Clark MP talking about "the successful dry run of the data matching process over the summer". If he had been referring to the data-mining pilot as DMossEsq wrongly believed that would indeed have been "peculiar".

But the Minister wasn't referring to the data-mining pilot. He was referring to a separate exercise known as "the confirmation dry run".

The report on the confirmation dry run says: "The Electoral Commission evaluated this pilot and concluded that confirmation should be used during the transition to IER as a way of safeguarding against a decline in the completeness of the registers, while maintaining their accuracy" (p.2).

In light of which DMossEsq acknowledges without reservation that the Minister's choice of words is unobjectionable.

Whitehall press release – an apology

In a blog post published on 19 December 2013, The peculiar art of the Whitehall press release, DMossEsq accused a Cabinet Office Minister of describing a manifest failure as a success. DMossEsq was wrong and he apologises.

The peculiar art of the Whitehall press release

Date confirmed for Individual Electoral Registration (IER), says yesterday's Cabinet Office press release: "The government has today confirmed its intention to move to IER on 10 June 2014 in England and Wales and 19 September 2014 in Scotland".

We are moving in Great Britain from household registration to individual electoral registration. That is the will of Parliament as enshrined in the Electoral Registration and Administration Act 2013.

How will local Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) make sure that the electoral roll includes all those eligible to vote and only those eligible to vote? It's an old question. With old answers – we've been voting for several centuries now.

There was one new answer.

How about comparing the electoral rolls with other databases like the National Insurance number database? That way EROs could be given a list of people to follow up who should be on the electoral roll but aren't, and try to prevail on them to register.

Worth trying. The Electoral Commission drafted in the Government Digital Service (GDS) to do a "data mining" or "data matching" exercise.

Whatever you want to call it, the exercise was an unmitigated failure. "The findings from this pilot do not justify the national roll out of data mining", said the Commission in their July 2013 Data mining pilot – evaluation report, first recommendation, p.8, in bold.

The Commission gave several reasons for their conclusion, including the fact that GDS put forward not only foreign people ineligible to vote as candidates for EROs to follow up but also people who were already registered and didn't need any follow-up.

They had other reasons in addition. The delays caused by GDS. GDS's procedural changes mid-stream which meant results weren't comparable. The refusal by GDS to say how much their work had cost, with the result that the Commission don't know what the pilot cost and can't estimate the cost of live running.

And that's just the second pilot. In the first pilot, GDS made it look as though 82% of residents on the electoral roll in Ceredigion were impostors. EROs need reliable data. This is the election of governments we're talking about here, both local and national.

One way and another, the Commission's conclusion seems unimpeachable. The findings from this pilot do not justify the national roll out of data mining.

And how is this matter dealt with in yesterday's press release?

The Rt Hon Greg Clark MP, the Cabinet Office Minister responsible, is quoted as saying: "Following the successful dry run of the data matching process over the summer, and the Electoral Commission’s assessment that there is no reason to delay implementation, this confirms progress towards a more modern, secure system of electoral registration".

Somehow the unmitigated failure of the second pilot has become a "successful dry run". ☠ Please see comment below, 21 December 2013, 1:19 a.m. Please see also Whitehall press release – an apology.

The peculiar art of the Whitehall press release

Date confirmed for Individual Electoral Registration (IER), says yesterday's Cabinet Office press release: "The government has today confirmed its intention to move to IER on 10 June 2014 in England and Wales and 19 September 2014 in Scotland".

We are moving in Great Britain from household registration to individual electoral registration. That is the will of Parliament as enshrined in the Electoral Registration and Administration Act 2013.

How will local Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) make sure that the electoral roll includes all those eligible to vote and only those eligible to vote? It's an old question. With old answers – we've been voting for several centuries now.

There was one new answer.

Vaz v. Rapson – book now to avoid disappointment

In their bid to transform government, the Government Digital Service (GDS) have chosen 25 public service transactions to demonstrate their prowess.

Three of them (see alongside) are Home Office transactions. No.20 out of 25 is something to do with criminal record checks.

But things have moved on. No.20 is no more. As ex-Guardian man Mike Bracken, executive director of GDS, tells us in his quarterly report:

Following discovery on exemplar 20 (criminal records checks), GDS and Home Office (HO) have agreed that due to contractual constraints and competing policy and legislative priorities, there would be more opportunity to effect transformational change by March 2015 in another service. GDS and HO have agreed to investigate working with HM Passports Office as an alternative, and details of the new service will be confirmed publicly on the transformation dashboard when finalised.

He also tells us that:

We have published guidelines on increasing digital take-up alongside case studies of how public sector organisations have successfully achieved channel shift; we intend to expand on this with additional case studies. We’re doing further research with users of 2 services (online passport applications and Carer’s Allowance) to learn more about: how we can get offline users to use a digital service for the first time why users revert to non-digital channels We’ll publish the outcomes of the research along with the guidance we develop from it.

The "contractual constraints" on the criminal records work can't have just appeared recently. They must have been known about a long time ago.

It looks as though GDS have been taken off criminal record checks but given something else to do on passports as a consolation. Do GDS and the Home Office realise that there are "contractual constraints" on passport work as well, just as much as on criminal record checks?

The contract to provide the Home Office with work on passports is worth £385 million and is currently held by CSC, the software house who contributed so much to the NHS's National Programme for IT (£12 billion of taxpayers' money reduced to ahes) and to the Home Office's biometrics-based visa applications system. CSC is also the software house which has been fined $250 million by the US military and is being sued by its shareholders.

CSC took over the passport contract from Siemens, who were paid £365 million between 1999 and 2009. When DMossEsq renewed his passport on-line 10½ years ago, the Siemens system seemed to work perfectly well. When he renewed it six months ago, the CSC system seemed to work perfectly well.

On that basis, it seems unlikely that we need GDS to do any more work on passport applications. It's a waste of their time and our money and it may invalidate any warranties CSC have given.

The effect of these huge passport contracts to re-write working software is that we are being over-charged by £296 million a year (DMossEsq estimate), a fact which has been brought to the attention of Sarah Rapson, who was executive director chief executive of the Identity & Passport Service (IPS) at the time.

No longer.

IPS is now HMPO, Her Majesty's Passport Office.

And Sarah Rapson isn't the executive director chief executive there any more – she's now interim Director General of UK Visas and Immigration. When she made her first appearance before Keith Vaz's Home Affairs Committee they treated her with sympathetic tolerance and patience.

UK e-borders scheme failing to make immigration checks, the Guardian told us in October: "Border control system's alerts are not being routinely used to stop terror suspects or war criminals, watchdog reveals", the watchdog being the excellent John Vine.

Her next appearance may be more dramatic. Book early.

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Updated 22.7.14

Home Office's 'flagship' £350m immigration computer system ditched The Home Office wasted nearly £350 million on a computer system for dealing with immigration and asylum applications that was abandoned, forcing staff to revert to using an old system that regularly freezes. The “Immigration Case Work” system was commissioned in 2010 and was supposed to be a “flagship IT programme”, a report by the National Audit Office (NAO) said. However, it suffered "delays and problems" that led to it being shut down last August. Ministers have now commissioned another new computer system that is due to cost a further £209 million by 2016-17 ...

Vaz v. Rapson – book now to avoid disappointment

In their bid to transform government, the Government Digital Service (GDS) have chosen 25 public service transactions to demonstrate their prowess.

Three of them (see alongside) are Home Office transactions. No.20 out of 25 is something to do with criminal record checks.

But things have moved on. No.20 is no more. As ex-Guardian man Mike Bracken, executive director of GDS, tells us in his quarterly report:

Following discovery on exemplar 20 (criminal records checks), GDS and Home Office (HO) have agreed that due to contractual constraints and competing policy and legislative priorities, there would be more opportunity to effect transformational change by March 2015 in another service. GDS and HO have agreed to investigate working with HM Passports Office as an alternative, and details of the new service will be confirmed publicly on the transformation dashboard when finalised.

He also tells us that:

RIP IDA – Universal Credit, bad week/good news

Digital-by-default would work for Universal Credit

only if the JobCentre staff and the claimants were things like kettles.

They're not.

No need to say it, it goes without saying, it should be obvious to all but, just in case it isn't obvious to all, IDA is dead.

IDA is the Cabinet Office Identity Assurance programme. And it's dead.

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Private Eye No.1355 13-20 December 2013 p.5

There's been a lot of Universal Credit news this week.

And none of that news is good.

Or almost none ...

First of all, the money. Never mind Private Eye's figure of £34 million being written off, we know that the write-off will be a nine-figure sum in the end and hope it won't be any bigger.

That's bad news for the taxpayer – that's our money going up in smoke. Why bother to pay tax? It's bad news for the human beings who will remain caught in the benefits trap for years. It's bad news for Iain Duncan Smith, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions. It's bad news for Robert Devereux, Permanent Secretary at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). And it's not good news for the contractors who have been paid a fortune. World-class professional systems integrators every one of them – Accenture (£125 million), IBM (£75 million), Hewlett-Packard (£58 million) and BT (£16 million) – their name is Mudd.

There is one organisation it should have been good news for – the "hot-shot computer programmers from the Government Digital Service (GDS)", as Rachel Sylvester called them in the Times. But it isn't. Not even for them.

Last seen in these parts, DWP had two options. Stick with the existing contractors and try to make the Universal Credit IT systems work. Or ditch them, and opt instead for the more web-based approach recommended by GDS, something more "agile" and more "digital by default".

"As mentioned by DWP last week, we completed work on a digital strategic solution of the Universal Credit service on October 3rd. That included a proof of concept – tested with real users – and an outline of the operating model and any dependent technology required. With that delivered, we’re supporting DWP while they develop the digital skills needed to build and operate the full service."

Thus ex-Guardian man Mike Bracken, writing on the Transformation blog the day before yesterday. He is the chief executive executive director of GDS, part of the Cabinet Office, and the senior responsible owner of the pan-government identity assurance programme.

DWP's decision is thanks, but no thanks. They will continue with the existing contractors while re-writing the Universal Credit IT system without GDS's assistance. Once that's written, it will take over and the existing systems will be dispensed with.

But the new system will not be digital by default. Hat tip: Tony Collins, as ever, Universal Credit to be partly online (but not entirely on-line). Special hat tip: Brian Wernham, Universal Credit project to abandon ‘digital-by-default’ – £303m spent, £65m of IT assets to show for it.

That is the decision of Howard Shiplee, Director General for Universal Credit, overall manager of the project, following his success in getting all the Olympics 2012 buildings put up on time.

Mr Shiplee was up in front of the Work and Pensions Select Committee on Monday where there was some badinage about the relationship between DWP and GDS/the Cabinet Office. As Tony Collins puts it: "... Stephen Lloyd, Liberal Democrat, ... asked if there is any truth in the suggestion that if the Cabinet Office doesn’t stop interfering Shiplee will quit".

Mr Shiplee played that with a straight bat, of course, but why have DWP rejected digital-by-default?

The answer given to the Committee was: "From a security point of view to have everything digital is not at this stage a sensible or appropriate solution". Mr Shiplee was talking about the need for claimants to prove who they are and to prove that their current circumstances make them eligible for Universal Credit. What he is saying is that GDS's digital-by-default can't offer that proof.

And that, as others have pointed out, is a grenade with the pin pulled out.

If it is accepted that digital-by-default – or more precisely, on-line identity assurance – cannot offer the proof required, then it's dead. RIP. And if that's a reason for DWP to avoid digital-by-default, it's a reason for every other department, too.

Mr Shiplee holds out the possibility that on-line identity assurance could one day be available: "It will take some considerable time to get to a totally online system". But so what if it is one day available? Would it then be right to make Universal Credit digital by default?

No.

Go back two months to the Public Accounts Committee hearing. Take a look at Q155 and Mr Devereux's answer: "With regard to all those people who are currently out of work and are going to be supported by universal credit, I will want to see them in the jobcentre. I am trying to ensure that—in eyeballing my agents, in signing the claimant commitment and in understanding their obligations—there is going to be some human contact".

Are those "agents" Mr Devereux refers to – the JobCentre staff who are being "eyeballed" by the benefits claimants – doing a valuable job?

If you think the answer is no, then they are redundant, perhaps they can be replaced by computer systems and perhaps, 11 years after digital-by-default starts (GDS's estimate), 40,000 or more of those public servants can safely be laid off and perhaps that will save £1.7 billion a year (again, GDS's estimate).

GDS accept that there are occasions when you need to meet people face-to-face. Particularly when you are doing requirements elicitation, i.e. trying to find out what the users need from a computerised system. Even GDS don't think that all communication can be on-line. You have to be there, in the room with the users, during the "discovery phase" of a project, as GDS call it, otherwise something important is lost. That is an article of the "agile" methodology that they profess.

This is what we have christened before a "Class H" transaction, where "H" stands for "human", and we distinguished it from Class D (for "digital") transactions such as buying a book from Amazon, which can perfectly well be done digitally.

If you think that working with benefits claimants, assessing them and trying to get them back into work, is a Class H transaction, then digital-by-default is not "a sensible or appropriate solution" even if on-line identity assurance is available, which, at the moment, it isn't. The contribution of the JobCentre staff can't be replicated by the artificial intelligence of a set of algorithms and neither can the requirements of the claimants.

We have come across the phrase "the internet of things" before, please see Instrumenting the kettle. Digital-by-default would work for Universal Credit only if the JobCentre staff and the claimants were things like kettles. They're not. GDS's mission in the case of Universal Credit is inhuman. And if an understanding of that point comes out of this week's Universal Credit scandal then at least there'll have been some good news.

----------

Update 10.1.14

One month later, there continues to be a lot of Universal Credit news. In the past couple of days we've had:

• 8 January 2014: Francis Maude plays down universal credit IT row with DWP – Patrick Wintour
• 9 January 2014: Big 4 Universal Credit IT suppliers punished? – Tony Collins
• 9 January 2014: DWP already struggling to recruit digital skills for Universal Credit IT development – Brian Glick
• 9 January 2014: Maude on digital government and driving licences (and Universal Credit) – Andrew Neil
• 9 January 2014: The "rift" between Cabinet Office and DWP indicates that the new HMG IT Strategy is for real – Philip Virgo
• 10 January 2014: Never mind bungled Universal Credit rollout, Maude wants UK to be 'most digital' gov by 2015 – Kelly Fiveash

RIP IDA – Universal Credit, bad week/good news

Digital-by-default would work for Universal Credit

only if the JobCentre staff and the claimants were things like kettles.

They're not.

No need to say it, it goes without saying, it should be obvious to all but, just in case it isn't obvious to all, IDA is dead.

IDA is the Cabinet Office Identity Assurance programme. And it's dead.

----------

Private Eye No.1355 13-20 December 2013 p.5

There's been a lot of Universal Credit news this week.

And none of that news is good.

Or almost none ...

First of all, the money. Never mind Private Eye's figure of £34 million being written off, we know that the write-off will be a nine-figure sum in the end and hope it won't be any bigger.

That's bad news for the taxpayer – that's our money going up in smoke. Why bother to pay tax? It's bad news for the human beings who will remain caught in the benefits trap for years. It's bad news for Iain Duncan Smith, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions. It's bad news for Robert Devereux, Permanent Secretary at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). And it's not good news for the contractors who have been paid a fortune. World-class professional systems integrators every one of them – Accenture (£125 million), IBM (£75 million), Hewlett-Packard (£58 million) and BT (£16 million) – their name is Mudd.

There is one organisation it should have been good news for – the "hot-shot computer programmers from the Government Digital Service (GDS)", as Rachel Sylvester called them in the Times. But it isn't. Not even for them.

midata in the UK, MesInfos en France

300 individus volontaires ont accès à leurs données personnelles restituées par les organisations partenaires du projet via une plate-forme personnelle de données sécurisée.

Do what?

Look mate, it's French. Alright?

It means something like "300 volunteers have access to their personal data given back to them by partner organisations in the project via a secure personal data platform".

What project?

Project MesInfos, in French, or midata in pidgin English.

Norman Lamb mentioned it when he launched last year's non-consultation into midata, p.22, para.2.15:

In France the FING think tank has created the ‘Mesinfos’ group to look at developments in personal data and is hoping to run a pilot whereby a range of different datasets from the private sector are available to explore the opportunities for new applications and services.

Yes, they've got it, too, the French – midata – a bad dose:

Une communauté de développeurs et designer est mobilisée pour concevoir des applications et services innovants autour de ces données, ouvrant un nouveau champ d’usages pour les individus.

Or as we would say, roughly: "a community of developers and designers has been mobilised to conceive of innovative applications and services around personal data, creating a new utilities space for individuals".

And whereas we in the UK have Ctrl-Shift, the "market analyst and consulting business that helps organisations understand the implications and embrace the opportunities arising from the changing personal data landscape", over the water there in France they have Fing:

La Fing, coordinateur du projet, est un think tank de nouvelle génération qui aide les entreprises, les institutions et les territoires à anticiper les mutations liées aux technologies et à leurs usages.

Fing is "the co-ordinator of the [MesInfos] project, it is a new generation think tank helping businesses, institutions and local authorities to prepare for adaptations in technology use", least I fink that's what it says.

Oh lord. The poor old French being served up the same tosh as us Britanniques.

Do Ctrl-Shift and Fing really think we've never seen a bank statement before? Or an itemised phone bill? Do they think our pockets aren't already stuffed with detailed receipts from Sainsbury's and E. Leclerc? What are they talking about, suppliers refusing to give us our data back? It's nonsense. They're trying to solve a problem that doesn't exist.

And they're not very good at solving even non-existent problems. Either of them. midata or MesInfos. They say they're going to create a personal data apps market. We've already got one. Yea, verily, Google's power stretches even unto France. (And Google is one of the MesInfos project partners.) They're too late to provide a solution, the market already has.

Faites attention, MesInfos, not to make the same mistake as the midata Innovation Lab, and produce five dreary apps that no-one wants.

They promise us control over our personal data:

MesInfos propose une voie nouvelle, différente : faire en sorte que les individus puissent (re)trouver l’usage des données qui les concernent, à leurs propres fins. Du point de vue des individus, il s’agit d’une nouvelle étape dans l’empowerment numérique.

That's Fing today echoing Ed Davey two years ago:

Today’s announcement marks the first time globally there has been such a Government-backed initiative to empower individuals with so much control over the use of their own data.

And it's just as hollow today as it was then. It is beyond the power of Fing to grant French consumers control over their personal data. Just as it is beyond the power of Mydex in the UK. So why do they make these ridiculous promises? You can ask them till you're bleu dans le visage, they can't answer the question how will you provide this control?

They both promise secure websites. A "plate-forme personnelle sécurisée" from Fing and a "hyper secure personal data store and platform" from Mydex. And what do we know about secure websites? They don't exist. Like unicorns.

In the UK the idea is that personal data stores should provide the basis on which "identity providers" can vouch that you are who you claim to be when you deal with government on-line. The personal data store is like a dematerialised ID card.

Is the same true in France?

Someone asked.

And Renaud Francou of Fing answered.

Who he? Answer, "Renaud Francou, 32 ans, a rejoint l’équipe Fing en 2003. Il anime depuis Marseille avec Charles Népote le programme Identités actives (2007-2009) et participe à l’animation du dispositif PACA Labs destiné à soutenir les projets expérimentaux en région Provence Alpes Côte d’Azur."

According to M. Francou:

@DMossEsq @manhack @Expe_MesInfos It is rather a "white ID card" : I don't need to give U my name to prove that I have some rights #mesinfos — RenaudFrancou (@RenaudFrancou) December 3, 2013

So there we have it. Yes, he says, a MesInfos personal data store is an ID card. But a nice white one. Not a nasty black one. (You can say that in France. Presumably.)

Anyone remember Serge Blisko? Good luck, M. Francou, if MesInfos comes to his attention.

----------

Updated 18 December 2013:

The UK has midata. France has MesInfos. And the US? MyData.

MyData is in the purlieu of the Presidential Innovation Fellows: "The Presidential Innovation Fellows (PIF) program pairs top innovators from the private sector, non-profits, and academia with top innovators in government to collaborate during focused 6-13 month 'tours of duty' to develop solutions that can save lives, save taxpayer money, and fuel job creation".

You know what to look for now in these personal data schemes.

And it's all there in MyData.

"Empowering the American people with secure access to their own personal health, energy, and education data." Empowering? In what way? Secure access? Shouldn't that be hyper secure?

"... spurring the growth of private-sector applications and services that a person can use to crunch his or her own data for a growing array of useful purposes." The private sector applications and services market has already been spurred.

What is this array of useful purposes? Is it a 2013 echo of the South Sea Company's 1720 "undertaking of great advantage but no-one to know what it is"? Is it like midata's equally imprecise "data-enabled online market place [that] will create new services that will take your data and do some really interesting things with it"? What really interesting things?

The only distinguishing feature of the Presidential Innovation Fellows' MyData initiative is that when it says "Stay connected: Follow @ProjectMyData on Twitter" and you click on  @ProjectMyData, you see this Twitter page:

All those top innovators? 13-month tours of duty? Saving lives? Saving money? Creating jobs? All those questions, and the answer's "that page doesn't exist"? The PIFs' heart's not really in it, is it?

Updated 23 December 2013:

You know about midata in the UK and MesInfos in France. Also MyData in the US. Dull, dull, dull.

But what, you ask, of India?

And the answer, typically, is far wiser and more human: "Midata is a Telugu Movie. Main Cast: Srikanth and Namitha. Music Composed by Yatish".

midata in the UK, MesInfos en France

300 individus volontaires ont accès à leurs données personnelles restituées par les organisations partenaires du projet via une plate-forme personnelle de données sécurisée.

Do what?

Look mate, it's French. Alright?

It means something like "300 volunteers have access to their personal data given back to them by partner organisations in the project via a secure personal data platform".

What project?

Have you ever had breakfast with Sophia Loren?

There was a very good programme on BBC4 recently, The Joy of Logic: "Documentary exploring the human quest for certainty and sound reasoning itself. Professor Dave Cliff asks, just how logical are we really and can humans stay ahead?". Highly recommended.

Never having had breakfast

with Sophia Loren,

David Moss sets out on a journey

from Plato to Bjørn Lomborg‎,

with a long pit stop

at Willard Van Orman Quine.

Why would anybody do that?

The BBC programme covers much of the same ground as the esteemed treatise on artificial intelligence penned by none other than DMossEsq himself currently basking at no. 5,298,041 in Amazon's bestsellers rankings. If even one person buys a copy for Christmas thanks to Professor Cliff, surely the book could once again shoot up into its rightful position in the high four millions.

Have you ever tried to read Gödel's Theorem? Couldn't even understand the definitions? Same here.

But it's important. In any formalised language, you can have either completeness or consistency, one or the other, but not both.

Professor Cliff reminds us of Gödel's belief that people were trying to poison him. The only person he would allow to prepare his meals was his wife. When she fell ill and went into hospital he starved to death.

Which makes the first of many important distinctions – just because a person like Kurt Gödel is highly intelligent, it doesn't follow that he's sane. Intelligence and sanity are two different things ...

... a Pandora's box which needs to be opened because the study of logic, the principles of mathematics and developments in computer science all wash up on the shores these days of artificial intelligence (AI), not to be confused with artificial insemination.

Surely the brain is like a computer. Surely the web is like a giant brain. Study neural networks and surely you're studying how the brain works.

Really?

Professor Susan Greenfield, who knows a bit about brains, is always magnificently withering about these claims of AI. Studying the computational activity of the brain is the easy bit, the bit that all the logicians and mathematicians and computer scientists just happen to have methods for. What about all the other activities that occupy the human mind? The AI bods have not a word to say about them, she points out scornfully and correctly, AI is baffled into silence.

AI is baffled into silence about human psychology and social dynamics and political governance. Not to mention aesthetic, ethical and theological judgement.

Just like the neuroscience bods who think they can study ethical decision-making by watching which bits of the brain light up during the process. Just like the econometricians who think they can analyse human motivation using nothing more than a trivial model of maximising returns. Baffled. Silence.

An AI bod may know an encyclopaediaful of facts about the web and yet still have nothing especially cogent to say about humanity. Here's professor Sir Tim-Berners Lee, for example, talking nonsense:

Armed with the information that social networks and other web giants hold about us, he said, computers will be able to "help me run my life, to guess what I need next, to guess what I should read in the morning, because it will know not only what's happening out there but also what I've read already, and also what my mood is, and who I'm meeting later on".

And that's just the genuine academics. Then there's the retail end, the burgeoning industry of the so-called "quantified self" – "There is further investment in the quantified self space as Canadian company Retrofit announces $8 million in new funding ..." – where a little more self-knowledge of bafflement might promote a little more healthy silence.

Let's get back to the engaging Professor Cliff. He opens the programme with a disarming story of his own unintelligence. He wrote a computer program years ago that emulates the activity of traders in markets – purely computational, perfectly feasible – which was instrumental in removing the human traders and replacing them with, as he says, a computer, a dog and a man. The dog's job is to protect the computer and the man's job is to feed the dog.

Why unintelligent? He gave the computer program away for free and lots of other people have made a fortune out of it. Is that so unintelligent? Discuss.

The TV programme includes a large cast of eminent talking heads. Including Professor Sir Nigel Shadbolt, professor of AI at the University of Southampton, chairman and co-founder of the Open Data Institute and chairman of the Department for Business Innovation and Skills midata programme.

He's been putting himself about a bit recently, Professor Sir Nigel.

@DMossEsq #opendata and #midata are entirely distinct varieties of data - and it is essential that people understand the difference — Nigel Shadbolt (@Nigel_Shadbolt) June 10, 2013

I think that you'll find that within the open data community there is a very strong recognition of the need to protect privacy but it’s more complicated than baldly saying 'open data is not personal data.

Jeni Tennison

Technical Director of the Open Data Institute

There was his 22 October 2013 double act with Stephan "embrace the change" Shakespeare, for example, giving evidence in front of the Public Administration Select Committee – there is no good reason to preserve personal privacy, not when making personal data open would benefit society.

There was his appearance in the Financial Times the day before yesterday with his Maseratis and his 30-foot sloop and his book, The Spy in the Coffee Machine: The End of Privacy as we Know It, which is going on at least one person's Christmas list.

And there was his review of the work done by the midata Innovation Lab where he said that the five prototype me-too applications produced by the lab allow us to "get to the future more quickly". Che?

Logic.

That's where we started.

You and Professor Cliff could search high and low without finding the answer to the question where is the logic in Professor Sir Nigel wasting his time and our money re-creating what the market has already provided?

----------

Updated 9-6-14

Computer passes 'Turing Test' for the first time after convincing users it is human

Updated 11.6.14

As you were:

World to Captain Cyborg on 'Turing test' stunt: You're Rumbled Man who pretended to be a robot fooled by robot pretending to be a man ... This week, the realisation may have belatedly dawned on much of the mainstream media that a Kevin Warwick claim needs to be taken with a mine's worth of salt ... What did it this time is Warwick's claim that the "Turing Test" - which measures ability of a machine to convincingly mimic a human while communicating with real humans in a blind test - had been passed at an event Warwick had organised and hosted. This had all the hallmarks of a Warwick stunt - you only had to look.

Updated 14.6.14

Professor Sir Nigel Shadbolt:

No, robots aren’t taking over. But the future is dazzling Building an engaging, general and well-rounded intelligence is as far away as ever.

Updated 17.7.14

Jesus College Oxford Election of Next Principal Tuesday, 15 July 2014 Members and friends of the College will be pleased to learn that the Governing Body has resolved to elect as its next Principal, Professor Sir Nigel Shadbolt, who is, at present, Professor of Artificial Intelligence at the University of Southampton. The formal election will take place in October 2014. Sir Nigel will take up the post with effect from 1st August 2015.

Have you ever had breakfast with Sophia Loren?

There was a very good programme on BBC4 recently, The Joy of Logic: "Documentary exploring the human quest for certainty and sound reasoning itself. Professor Dave Cliff asks, just how logical are we really and can humans stay ahead?". Highly recommended.

Never having had breakfast

with Sophia Loren,

David Moss sets out on a journey

from Plato to Bjørn Lomborg‎,

with a long pit stop

at Willard Van Orman Quine.

Why would anybody do that?

The BBC programme covers much of the same ground as the esteemed treatise on artificial intelligence penned by none other than DMossEsq himself currently basking at no. 5,298,041 in Amazon's bestsellers rankings. If even one person buys a copy for Christmas thanks to Professor Cliff, surely the book could once again shoot up into its rightful position in the high four millions.

Have you ever tried to read Gödel's Theorem? Couldn't even understand the definitions? Same here.

But it's important. In any formalised language, you can have either completeness or consistency, one or the other, but not both.

Professor Cliff reminds us of Gödel's belief that people were trying to poison him. The only person he would allow to prepare his meals was his wife. When she fell ill and went into hospital he starved to death.

Which makes the first of many important distinctions – just because a person like Kurt Gödel is highly intelligent, it doesn't follow that he's sane. Intelligence and sanity are two different things ...

A reminder to all tax publishers – tomorrow's the day

GDS & HMRC – what could possibly go wrong?

Good question ...

... which should be answered tomorrow, 9 December 2013, the day of the workshop round at GDS Towers, where tax publishers are invited to a briefing on GOV.UK:

We would like to invite all tax publishers to attend a briefing on GOV.UK. There will be an opportunity for questions on the day and if there is a need we can arrange follow up meetings on a later date. The workshop will be held on Monday 9 December from 1.30pm to 3.30pm at Aviation House. If you would like to attend, please contact the HMRC transition team.

The purpose of this transition is apparently to provide APIs (applications program interfaces) to HMRC's manuals.

What can the tax publishers look forward to seeing tomorrow?

Perhaps an API that calculates the optimal group relief for a typical group of, say, 100 companies? An API that takes into account the fact that several of these companies have different year-ends? Some were sold during the year and others acquired during the year? Some own subsidiaries overseas? With different accounting currencies? The optimal group relief this year may require the amended returns for previous years to be re-submitted? The API will do all this for you and direct debit the taxpayer's bank account to pay the tax due?

Easy stuff. Anyone can do it. Certainly the "elite team of digital experts" at GDS should have no problem.

Harder by far is to get the language right.

Did someone just write "re-submitted"? Oh dear. As GDS tell us:

Plain English is mandatory for all of GOV.UK. This means we don’t use formal or long words when easy or short ones will do. For example, we normally talk about sending something ... rather than ‘submitting’ it ...

Oddly enough, despite the word "submit" being so formal and long, it does actually occur on GOV.UK several hundred times, please see the GOV.UK example below. It is just possible that, on this occasion, what GDS said is false and that this is an occasion on which the formal and long word "poppycock" could properly be used.

----------

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  If you provide childminding or day care services in Wales then you must be registered with Care and Social Services Inspectorate Wales (CSSIW)
  

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  You must notify the PSNI if you want to hold a public procession or parade in Northern Ireland
  

• Wild and protected bird licence (England, Scotland and Wales)

  You need a licence to kill or take wild birds, take eggs or nests or disturb specially protected birds.
  

• Business rates appeals

  Part of Business , Premises rates
  How to make a business rates appeal in England or Wales - how to check the value of your property, material changes, types of appeal, how to appeal
  

• Independent school registration (Scotland)

  You need to register with the Register of Independent Schools in Scotland to run an independent school
  

• House in multiple occupation licence (Scotland)

  Part of Business , Licences
  Get a licence to rent out your property as a house in multiple occupation in Scotland (HMO) - local authority, private renting, landlords, houseshare
  

• VAT visits and inspections

  Part of Tax , Vat
  VAT checks by HM Revenue & Customs - VAT officers inspecting your VAT record keeping and business premises
  

• Dietitian registration

  To practise as a dietitian, you need to register with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC)
  

• Construct a bridge over a road (Northern Ireland)

  You need a licence to construct a bridge over a road in Northern Ireland
  

• Starting to export

  Part of Business , Imports exports
  Company exports to another country - commodity codes, VAT, register with HMRC, CHIEF, paying duty
  

• Archaeological excavation licence (Northern Ireland)

  You need a licence to carry out archaeological excavation or search for archaeological objects in Northern Ireland
  

• Flood defence consent (England & Wales)

  You need consent from the Environment agency to do any work on or next to a watercourse
  

• Register as a childminder for children up to 5 (England)

  If you want to become a childminder in England looking after children up to 5, you must register on the 'Early Years Register' with Ofsted
  

• Register as a childminder (Northern Ireland)

  You must register with your local Health and Social Care Trust (HSCT) if you want to become a childminder or provide day care services in Northern Ireland
  

• DSA practical test booking service: data protection

  Part of Driving , Learning to drive
  Data Protection Act 1998 Fair Processing Notice for the Driving Standards Agency (DSA) practical test booking
  

• The Center for Education Innovations

  Part of Citizenship , International development , Development funding business
  A competition to support expansion and replication of promising models on non-state education provision for the poorest
  

• Notice to former users of Internet Access to Shared Services

  Part of Benefits , Families , Support services for military and defence personnel and their families
  Details of how former users of the "chip and pin" service can access information, following the closure of Access to Shared Services (IASS).
  

• Intrastat: an overview

  Part of Business , Imports exports , Import and export procedures
  The system for collecting statistics on the trade in goods between European Union member states
  

• The Center for Health Market Innovations (CHMI)

  Part of Citizenship , International development , Development funding business
  Promotes policies and practices that improve privately delivered health care for the poor in low and middle-income countries.
  

• Apply for a Certificate of Fitness for call to the Bar of Northern Ireland or a Certificate of Pupillage for Scotland

  Part of Justice , Courts sentencing tribunals , Attorney general guidance to the legal profession
  Guide for barristers asking the Law Officers for permission to join the Bar of Northern Ireland or the Faculty of Advocates in Scotland.
  

• Counter-Proliferation Programme

  Part of Citizenship , Government , Government funding programmes
  Countering weapons proliferation is central to the government’s efforts to safeguard Britain’s national security and to support stability around the world.
  

• The Energy and Environment Partnership (EEP) programme with southern and East Africa

  Part of Citizenship , International development , Development funding business
  The EEP supports projects that provide renewable energy and/or implement energy efficiency solutions in southern and eastern Africa.
  

• Business Call to Action (BCtA)

  Part of Citizenship , International development , Development funding business
  Partnership opportunities for companies developing innovative business models that offer both commercial success and development impact.
  

• Review of the balance of competences

  Part of Citizenship , Government , Compliance with european union laws and regulation
  The review of the balance of competences will be an audit of what the EU does and how it affects the UK.
  

• Oil and gas: UK Oil Portal

  Part of Business , Licences , Oil and gas licensing
  The UK Oil Portal provides authenticated and secure access to e-business systems which support the regulation of the UK Oil and Gas industry
  

• Bilateral Programme Fund - Turkey

  Part of Citizenship , International development , Development funding business
  The Bilateral Programme Fund seeks to create real, measurable outcomes in support of the UK’s foreign policy goals.
  

• Intrastat: duty to report statistics

  Part of Business , Imports exports , Import and export procedures
  You must declare all goods leaving and entering the UK to HMRC, and complete your Intrastat Supplementary Declarations
  

• National Clearance Hub for goods entering, leaving or transiting the European Union

  Part of Business , Imports exports , Import and export procedures
  How to get your goods cleared by the NCH when moving third country goods into, out of, or through the EU.
  

• IDEAS: energy innovation awards in renewable energy, energy efficiency and energy access in the Caribbean

  Part of Citizenship , International development , Development funding business
  Funding for the development of innovative ideas that promote renewable energy.
  

• Chemical Weapons Convention guidance

  Part of Business , Licences , Chemical licensing
  Guidance for those producing, processing, consuming, importing or exporting chemicals covered by the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC)
  

• Powers of entry

  Part of Justice , Rights , Policing
  Guidance on powers of entry, and how these powers are changing under the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012.
  

• MOD Police Committee - Terms of reference

  Part of Working , Finding job , Military recruitment training and operations
  Appointments to the Ministry of Defence Police Committee are approved by the Secretary of State for Defence.
  

• Reuniting Europe Programme - Turkey

  Part of Business , Funding debt , European regional development funding
  The Reuniting Europe programme helps deliver our vision of building an effective EU in a secure neighbourhood.
  

• Investment Programme to encourage lending to SMEs

  Part of Citizenship , Government , Government funding programmes
  Explains a £300 million investment programme, inviting investment proposals to support lending to small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs).
  

• Defence Equipment and Support Principal Security Advisor

  Part of Working , Finding job , Military recruitment training and operations
  Find out about the Defence Equipment and Support Principal Security Advisor (DE&S PSyA) team and the International Visits Control Office.
  

• Research funding from Defra

  Part of Business , Science , Scientific research and development support schemes
  Applying for research funding from Defra, calls for expressions of interest, application forms and
  

• Customs Freight Simplified Procedures

  Part of Business , Imports exports , Import and export procedures
  An electronic customs system to allow the faster import of third country goods from countries that are not members of the European Community
  

• Producing impact assessments - guidance for government departments

  Part of Citizenship , Government , Creating impact assessments
  Guidance for policy-makers in government departments on the background to and process of completing an impact assessment.
  

• UK Prosperity Fund: Turkey

  Part of Citizenship , International development , Country regional funding
  The Prosperity Fund encourages global growth in line with the UK’s development goals on sustainable development.
  

• Planning guidance: letters to chief planning officers

  Part of Housing , Local councils , Planning officer guidance
  Guidance on various aspects of the planning system, given in letters to chief planning officers of local planning authorities.
  

• European Fisheries Fund: investing in aquaculture

  Part of Business , Farming , Grants and payments for farmers
  How to access European Fisheries Fund grants for aquaculture projects, eligibility rules and how to apply.
  

• European Fisheries Fund: processing and marketing fisheries and aquaculture products

  Part of Business , Maritime , Maritime and freshwater businesses
  The type of projects that can be funded by the European Fisheries Fund, who can apply and how, and how much you could get.
  

• European Fisheries Fund: organic and environmentally friendly measures

  Part of Business , Maritime , Maritime and freshwater businesses
  Compensation for organic and environmentally friendly aquaculture businesses and projects, who can apply and how much you could receive.
  

• Automatic Licence Verification between Defra/RPA and HMRC

  Part of Business , Imports exports , Import and export procedures
  How to import regulated plant goods and the automatic, multi-agency approval system used to simplify the process
  

• Extradition: processes and review

  Part of Justice , Rights , Policing
  Extradition processes and agreements between the UK and other countries, role of the Secretary of State, High Court and Supreme Court and the extradition review
  

• Oil and gas: wells

  Part of Business , Generating energy , Oil and gas exploration and production
  How to use the Oil Portal to apply for consent to drilling operations; details of other statements, notifications and monitoring required.
  

• Adoption in the Philippines

  Part of Abroad , Living abroad , Help for british nationals living overseas
  What to do if you are planning to adopt a child in the Philippines.
  

• European Fisheries Fund: investing on board your fishing vessel

  Part of Business , Maritime , Maritime and freshwater businesses
  Eligibility for grants to improve fishing vessels, the types of businesses and improvements that are supported and how to apply.
  

• Customs clearance for animals and animal products

  Part of Business , Imports exports , Import and export controls
  The Trade Control and Expert System (TRACES) is an online system that makes it easier for importers and exporters to provide health certification and track consignments of animals or animal products.
  

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Directly Operated Railways Limited Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee Disclosure and Barring Service Drinking Water Inspectorate Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency Driving Standards Agency Economic and Social Research Council Education Funding Agency Efficiency and Reform Group Engineering Construction Industry Training Board Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council English Heritage Environment Agency Equality 2025 Equality and Human Rights Commission Exmoor National Park Authority Export Control Organisation Export Guarantees Advisory Council FCO Services Family Justice Council Family Procedure Rule Committee Fire Service College Fleet Air Arm Museum Food Standards Agency Foreign Compensation Commission Forensic Science Regulator Forest Enterprise (England) Forest Research Forestry Commission Fuel Poverty Advisory Group Gambling Commission Gangmasters Licensing Authority Geffrye Museum Government Actuary's Department Government Communications Headquarters Government Equalities Office Government Estates Management Government Office for Science Government Procurement Service Great Britain-China Centre Groceries Code Adjudicator HM Courts and Tribunals Service HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate HM Inspectorate of Constabulary HM Inspectorate of Prisons HM Inspectorate of Probation HM Passport Office HM Prison Service HM Revenue & Customs Health Education England Health Research Authority Health and Safety Executive Health and Social Care Information Centre Healthcare UK Heritage Lottery Fund High Speed Two (HS2) Limited Higher Education Funding Council for England Highways Agency Historic Royal Palaces Homes and Communities Agency Horniman Public Museum and Public Park Trust Horserace Betting Levy Board House of Lords Appointments Commission Housing Ombudsman Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority Human Tissue Authority Imperial War Museum Independent Advisory Panel on Deaths in Custody Independent Agricultural Appeals Panel Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration Independent Commission for Aid Impact Independent Living Fund Independent Monitoring Boards of Prisons, Immigration, Removal Centres and Short Term Holding Rooms Independent Police Complaints Commission Independent Reconfiguration Panel Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation Industrial Development Advisory Board Industrial Injuries Advisory Council Information Commissioner's Office Infrastructure UK Insolvency Practitioners Tribunal Insolvency Rules Committee Intellectual Property Office Intelligence Services Commissioner Interception of Communications Commissioner Investigatory Powers Tribunal Joint Forces Command Joint Nature Conservation Committee Judicial Appointments Commission Judicial Appointments and Conduct Ombudsman Lake District National Park Authority Land Registration Rule Committee Land Registry Law Commission Leasehold Advisory Service Legal Aid Agency Legal Services Board Legal Services Commission Local Government Ombudsman London Thames Gateway Development Corporation London and Continental Railways Ltd Low Pay Commission Marine Accident Investigation Branch Marine Management Organisation Maritime and Coastguard Agency Marshall Aid Commemoration Commission Medical Research Council Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency Met Office Migration Advisory Committee Monitor Morecambe Bay Investigation NHS Blood and Transplant NHS Business Services Authority NHS England NHS Litigation Authority NHS Pay Review Body NHS Trust Development Authority NS&I National Army Museum National Assembly for Wales National College for Teaching and Leadership National Crime Agency National DNA Database Ethics Group National Employer Advisory Board National Employment Savings Trust (NEST) Corporation National Forest Company National Fraud Authority National Gallery National Heritage Memorial Fund National Institute for Health and Care Excellence National Lottery Commission National Measurement Office National Museum of the Royal Navy National Museums Liverpool National Offender Management Service National Portrait Gallery National security and intelligence Natural England Natural Environment Research Council Natural History Museum New Forest National Park Authority North York Moors National Park Authority Northern Ireland Assembly Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission Northern Lighthouse Board Northumberland National Park Authority Nuclear Decommissioning Authority Nuclear Liabilities Financing Assurance Board Nuclear Research Advisory Council Ofcom Office for Budget Responsibility Office for Fair Access Office for Life Sciences Office for Low Emission Vehicles Office for National Statistics Office of Fair Trading Office of Manpower Economics Office of Rail Regulation Office of Surveillance Commissioners Office of Tax Simplification Office of the Children's Commissioner Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner Office of the Parliamentary Counsel Office of the Public Guardian Office of the Regulator of Community Interest Companies Official Solicitor and Public Trustee Ofgem Ofqual Ofsted Oil and Pipelines Agency Olympic Delivery Authority Olympic Lottery Distributor Open Public Services Ordnance Survey Parades Commission for Northern Ireland Passenger Focus Peak District National Park Authority Pension Protection Fund Pension Protection Fund Ombudsman Pensions Ombudsman Planning Inspectorate Plant Varieties and Seeds Tribunal Police Advisory Board for England and Wales Police Arbitration Tribunal Police Discipline Appeals Tribunal Police Negotiating Board Prime Minister's Office, 10 Downing Street Prison Service Pay Review Body Prisons and Probation Ombudsman Privy Council Office Probation Trusts Public Health England Public Lending Right Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre Rail Accident Investigation Branch Railway Heritage Committee Regulatory Policy Committee Remploy Ltd Review Board for Government Contracts Review Body on Doctors' and Dentists' Remuneration Royal Air Force Museum Royal Armouries Museum Royal Marines Museum Royal Mint Royal Mint Advisory Committee Royal Museums Greenwich Royal Navy Submarine Museum Royal Parks Rural Payments Agency S4C School Teachers' Review Body Science Advisory Committee on the Medical Implications of Less-Lethal Weapons Science Advisory Council Science Museum Group Science and Technology Facilities Council Scottish Parliament Sea Fish Industry Authority Secret Intelligence Service Security Industry Authority Security Vetting Appeals Panel Senior Salaries Review Body Sentencing Council for England and Wales Serious Fraud Office Serious Organised Crime Agency Service Children's Education Service Complaints Commissioner Service Personnel and Veterans Agency Service Prosecuting Authority Sir John Soane's Museum Skills Funding Agency Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission Social Security Advisory Committee South Downs National Park Authority Sport England Sports Grounds Safety Authority Standards and Testing Agency Student Loans Company Supreme Court of the United Kingdom Surveillance Camera Commissioner Technical Advisory Board Technology Strategy Board The Adjudicator’s Office The Advisory Council on National Records and Archives The Charity Commission for England and Wales The Coal Authority The Crown Estate The Food and Environment Research Agency The Insolvency Service The Legal Ombudsman The McKay Commission The National Archives The Office of the Schools Commissioner The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman The Parole Board of England and Wales The Pensions Advisory Service The Pensions Regulator The Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest The Security Service The Shareholder Executive The Tate The Theatres Trust The Water Services Regulation Authority Traffic Commissioners Treasure Valuation Committee Treasury Solicitor’s Department Tribunal Procedure Committee Trinity House Trust ports UK Anti-Doping UK Atomic Energy Authority UK Border Agency UK Commission for Employment and Skills UK Debt Management Office UK Financial Investments Limited UK Green Investment Bank UK Hydrographic Office UK Space Agency UK Sport UK Statistics Authority UK Trade & Investment UK Visas and Immigration Valuation Office Agency Valuation Tribunal Vehicle Certification Agency Vehicle and Operator Services Agency Veterans Advisory and Pensions Committees Veterinary Medicines Directorate Veterinary Products Committee Victims' Advisory Panel Victims' Commissioner Victoria and Albert Museum VisitBritain VisitEngland Wallace Collection West Northamptonshire Development Corporation Westminster Foundation for Democracy Wilton Park Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority Youth Justice Board for England and Wales

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• HSMP Applications submitted over the past 12 months

  • Published on: 1 December 2005
  • FOI release
  • Departments: Home Office
  We have received a request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 requesting information on the number of HSMP applications submitted over…
  

• Visa applications submitted to Public Enquiry Office

  • Published on: 31 October 2013
  • FOI release
  • Departments: Home Office
  General visa applications submitted to Public Enquiry Office from October 2012 to March 2013.
  

• HSMP Applications submitted over the past 12 months

  • Published on: 1 December 2005
  • FOI release
  • Departments: Home Office
  Date: Thu Dec 01 14:02:25 GMT 2005 Full Document HSMP Applications submitted over the past 12 months (Microsoft Excel file - 32kb)
  

• List of installations submitted to the EC: approval to be excluded

  • Published on: 7 August 2012
  • Policy paper
  • Departments: DECC
  List of installations submitted to the European Commission for approval to be excluded from the Small Emitter and Hospital Opt-out Scheme.
  

• DBS FOI 1039: Employer applications submitted

  • Published on: 14 May 2013
  • FOI release
  • Departments: DBS
  The FOI 1039 is requesting the number of applications submitted by each employers name in the 12 month period ending September 2012.
  

• Nuclear Liabilities Financing Assurance Board

  The home of Nuclear Liabilities Financing Assurance Board on GOV.UK. We provide impartial scrutiny and advice on the suitability of the Funded Decommissioning Programme (FDP), submitted by operators of new nuclear power stations. The Board advises the Secretary of State on the...
  
  • What we do
  • Policies
  • Contact details
  • Ministers

• The processing time of FLR (O) applications with biometrics submitted in August 2012

  • Published on: 23 October 2013
  • FOI release
  • Departments: Home Office
  The processing time of FLR (O) applications with biometrics submitted in August 2012 including the number unresolved.
  

• Boundary Commission for Scotland

  The home of Boundary Commission for Scotland on GOV.UK. The Boundary Commission for Scotland (BCS) carries out boundary reviews of parliamentary constituencies in Scotland, and submits its recommendations to the government.
  
  • What we do
  • Policies
  • Contact details
  • Ministers

• Boundary Commission for Wales

  The home of Boundary Commission for Wales on GOV.UK. The Boundary Commission for Wales (BCW) carries out boundary reviews of parliamentary constituencies in Wales, and submits its recommendations to the government.
  
  • What we do
  • Policies
  • Contact details
  • Ministers

• DBS FOI 1046: Registered Bodies submitting less than 1500 applications

  • Published on: 28 May 2013
  • FOI release
  • Departments: DBS
  Registered Bodies who have submitted less than 1500 DBS applications in the last six months.
  

• DBS FOI 1047: Registered Bodies submitting more than 1500 applications

  • Published on: 28 May 2013
  • FOI release
  • Departments: DBS
  Registered Bodies submitting more than DBS 1500 applications in the last six months.
  

• DBS FOI 1050: Certain applications submitted to the DBS

  • Published on: 30 May 2013
  • FOI release
  • Departments: DBS
  Request for the number of applications submitted to the DBS by certain organisations.
  

• Boundary Commission for Northern Ireland

  The home of Boundary Commission for Northern Ireland on GOV.UK. The Boundary Commission for Northern Ireland (BCNI) carries out boundary reviews of parliamentary constituencies in Northern Ireland, and submits its recommendations to the government.
  
  • What we do
  • Policies
  • Contact details
  • Ministers

• Query about the latest submitted results data from the 6 Direct Payments pilot projects (4392/2012)

  • Published on: 31 December 2012
  • FOI release
  • Departments: DWP
  Response to an FOI request for information about the latest submitted results data from the 6 Direct Payments pilot projects.
  

• Number of Highly Skilled Migrant Programme (HSMP) applications submitted between November 2004 and October 2005.

  • Published on: 25 November 2005
  • FOI release
  • Departments: Home Office
  FOI 2081 We received a request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) for the following: The number of HSMP applications submitted…
  

• DBS 1003: Registered Bodies submitting less than 1500 applications

  • Published on: 23 January 2013
  • FOI release
  • Departments: DBS
  Response to DBS FOI 1003.
  

• Submitting evidence and proposals to the Airports Commission

  • Published on: 1 February 2013
  • Guidance
  • Departments:
  How the Airports Commission will take forward its programme of work.
  

• DBS Freedom of Information requests (FOI)

  • Published on: 8 October 2013
  • Collection
  • Departments: DBS
  This series brings together FOI requests submitted to the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS).
  

• Low Pay Commission

  The home of Low Pay Commission on GOV.UK. The Low Pay Commission (LPC) is an independent body that advises the government about the National Minimum Wage. We submit a report to the government each February making recommendations on the future level of...
  
  • What we do
  • Policies
  • Contact details
  • Ministers

• CoRWM Submit their Response to DECC's Geological Disposal Facility (GDF) Siting Review

  • Published on: 6 December 2013
  • News story
  • Departments: CoRWM
  CoRWM's response to DECC is now available to read on the website.
  

• DCMS/Wolfson Fund museums and galleries improvement fund: Guidance and bid pro forma for applicants

  • Published on: 29 April 2013
  • Guidance
  • Departments: DCMS
  Information on how to submit a bid.
  

• Guidance for submitting proposals to the Urban Broadband Fund

  • Published on: 21 December 2011
  • Guidance
  • Departments: DCMS
  Explaining the procedure for the allocation of the £100 million Urban Broadband Fund, including which cities can bid for it and how they should make proposals.
  

• DBS FOI: Criminal record data for applications submitted by Imperial College NHS Trust

  • Published on: 24 September 2013
  • FOI release
  • Departments: DBS
  Request for criminal record data for applications submitted by Imperial College NHS Trust.
  

• Foreign documents

  • Published on: 13 January 2012
  • Guidance
  • Departments: HM Passport Office
  Process for dealing with applications where foreign documents are submitted.
  

• Names of all parties responsible for submitting Petroleum Operations Notices: FoI request 13/0538

  • Published on: 22 May 2013
  • FOI release
  • Departments: DECC
  Freedom of information request
  

• Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine uptake monthly survey 2013 to 2014

  • Published on: 6 November 2013
  • Guidance
  • Departments: PHE
  User guide for submitting data via the ImmForm website
  

• Expression of interest guide

  • Published on: 23 April 2013
  • Guidance
  • Departments: DfE
  Guide for submitting an expression of interest (EOI) to the Department for Education.
  

• Consumer and patient experience of genetics concordat invited

  • Published on: 10 July 2012
  • Form
  • Departments: DH
  Consumers and patient groups are invited to submit evidence of their experience
  

• Submit a draft regulation to the European Commission: guidance for government departments

  • Published on: 7 September 2010
  • Guidance
  • Departments: BIS
  Practical guidance for government departments on how to complete form A, which notifies the European Commission of proposed technical regulations…
  

• Community interest companies: forms

  • Published on: 6 August 2013
  • Collection
  • Departments: CIC Regulator
  Forms for applying to form a community Interest company (CIC) or convert a company to a CIC, altering the objects of a CIC and submitting a CIC report.
  

• Modified UK national implementation measures for Phase III of the EU Emissions Trading System

  • Published on: 10 May 2012
  • Policy paper
  • Departments: DECC
  As submitted to the European Commission in April 2012 following the first stage of their scrutiny process.
  

• Long term capacity proposals submission procedure: additional clarification

  • Published on: 26 June 2013
  • Guidance
  • Departments:
  Additional clarification on the procedure for submitting long term capacity proposals to the Airports Commission.
  

• Sustainable Communities Act 2007: invitation to town and parish councils

  • Published on: 17 October 2013
  • Correspondence
  • Departments: DCLG
  Invitation to town and parish councils to submit proposals under the Sustainable Communities Act.
  

• Philippines - bilateral programme fund strategy

  • Published on: 12 April 2013
  • Guidance
  • Departments: FCO
  • Location: Philippines
  Guidance to those who would like to submit bids to the bilateral programme fund
  

• Philippines - prosperity fund strategy

  • Published on: 23 May 2013
  • Guidance
  • Departments: FCO
  • Location: Philippines
  Guidance to those who would like to submit bids to the prosperity programme fund
  

• Intelligent transport systems in the United Kingdom

  • Published on: 1 December 2011
  • Research and analysis
  • Departments: DFT
  Report on Intelligent Transport Systems in the UK submitted by the UK DfT to the European Commission
  

• Children looked after return 2013 to 2014: XML schema

  • Published on: 2 December 2013
  • Guidance
  • Departments: DfE
  Schema file for suppliers developing software that will assist local authorities submitting the children looked after data return 2013 to 2014.
  

• Single data list

  • Published on: 17 October 2012
  • Guidance
  • Departments: DCLG
  The single data list is a list of all the datasets that local government must submit to central government.
  

• Collection and submission of passports at the counter

  • Published on: 13 January 2012
  • Guidance
  • Departments: HM Passport Office
  Procedure and documents necessary for collecting passports from or submitting passport applications at the public counter.
  

• Prenatal pertussis vaccine uptake surveys 2013 to 2014

  • Published on: 6 November 2013
  • Guidance
  • Departments: PHE
  User guide for submitting data via the ImmForm website.
  

• Listing of aviation security providers: guidance notes and application forms

  • Published on: 16 March 2006
  • Guidance
  • Departments: DFT
  Guidance notes on submitting an application to become a Listed Aviation Security Provider.
  

• DBS e-bulk service overview

  • Published on: 8 November 2012
  • Guidance
  • Departments: DBS
  An overview of the e-bulk service which allows registered organisations to submit multiple electronic applications to the DBS.
  

• Environmental Information Regulations review: FOI request 12/1124

  • Published on: 11 June 2012
  • FOI release
  • Departments: DECC
  Request for an internal review into withholding certain documents in response to EIR 12/1124 submitted on 11 Sept 2012.
  

• Claims for compensation made against the former British Coal Corporation: reference 12/0259

  • Published on: 3 August 2012
  • FOI release
  • Departments: DECC
  FoI request concerning claims for compensation made against the former British Coal Corporation. Submitted on 16 February 2012.
  

• Breakdown of other renewables in energy and emissions projections: FOI request 12/1768

  • Published on: 10 January 2013
  • FOI release
  • Departments: DECC
  Breakdown of ‘other renewables’ in DECC’s updated Energy and Emissions Projections (UEP). Submitted 10 December 2012.
  

• Importing to the UK: tariff suspensions below the threshold for automatic prolongation

  • Published on: 24 February 2012
  • Guidance
  • Departments: BIS
  List of duty suspensions that have not reached the target set for automatic prolongation. Importers to the UK need to submit prorogation requests…
  

• Complaint from Corner House against Airbus S.A.S: UK national contact point final statement

  • Published on: 22 November 2010
  • Policy paper
  • Departments: BIS
  National contact point (NCP) final statement on a complaint submitted by Corner House against Airbus S.A.S.
  

• Applying for a visa in Italy: the process

  • Published on: 5 December 2013
  • World location news article
  • Location: Italy
  The British Embassy in Rome no longer processes visa applications for the United Kingdom. Visa applications submitted in Italy are now processed in London.
  

• Changing the retirement age: what the public think

  • Published on: 29 July 2010
  • Guidance
  • Departments: BIS
  Summary of evidence submitted by external stakeholders and interested individuals to the government’s review of the default retirement age, …
  

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