Tag: public sector

Where should cash-strapped public sector organisations allocate funds?

Upskilling employees, smarter outsourcing and new technology could help reduce costs and reduce debt – and deliver better service

TS Eliot’s poem The Waste Land, published exactly a century ago, begins with the words: “April is the cruellest month.” One hundred years on, considering the exorbitant rise of energy costs for British citizens and businesses in April 2022, it’s hard to disagree. Unfortunately, it appears worse is to come, with many feeling the world will end with a whimper – so how can the public sector cope?

On 5 May, the Bank of England lifted interest rates to a 13-year high and forecast that inflation would soar above 10% in the coming months, warning that the surging rise in living costs could plunge the economy into recession this year. But it’s not only citizens who are squeezed; the public sector is already in the red – just as demand for public services is likely to reach unprecedented levels.

The latest Office for National Statistics figures show that total public sector debt stood at £2,344 billion at the end of March 2022. This is equivalent to 96.2% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), a level not seen since the early 1960s.

Further, public sector net borrowing was £151.8 billion in the year to March 2022. This was the third-highest borrowing figure since records began in 1947, and is around 6.4% of GDP.

Given this gloomy backdrop, how should public sector organisations plagued by money worries invest in technology solutions that best serve struggling citizens? Granted, costly gambles on the metaverse and vanity projects are not a good idea right now, but what’s the best way to allocate funds?

Jon Crowcroft is a co-founder of iKVA, an artificial intelligence knowledge management company, chair of The Alan Turing Institute, and Marconi professor of communications systems in the computer laboratory at the University of Cambridge. He is well placed to answer these critical questions.

Investing in skills to address huge delivery challenges

“My advice would be to match the budget to the current skills base, or organisations will face the challenge of undertaking a huge retraining exercise that will overwhelm their resources,” he says. “Government departments such as transport, energy and healthcare are relatively technologically advanced and staffed by individuals who inherently use technology for timetabling systems, power grid maintenance and data analysis. Computing is embedded into job roles in these departments, particularly in healthcare.”

Other areas, such as the legal sector, have more limited skills, Crowcroft says. Their relative ability should inform where additional funds will be required to support the deployment of technological solutions. 

Alex Case is public sector industry principal at Pegasystems and a former senior civil servant at 10 Downing Street and the Cabinet Office, who recently oversaw cross-Whitehall Brexit delivery. He has also led large-scale public sector reform initiatives in the UK and Canada – and is in no doubt of the scale of the task ahead.

“The government continues to face huge delivery challenges, from coronavirus, Brexit, the war in Ukraine or the cost-of-living crisis, including dealing with backlogs, driving levelling up, getting the health service back on track, transforming social care and dealing with the safety of tall buildings. These need government operations to run effectively and efficiently and for the least amount of cost possible.”

Low-code can revolutionise how government designs and builds IT. It can help a business to get what it wants and needs from a new system, not the system the IT team thinks the business needs

Low-code software development uses drag-and-drop features instead of extensive coding language to build applications. The result is that it is faster to complete and non-professional coders can use it. This makes it an excellent option to accelerate innovation and reduce costs, suggests Case. Its uses across government departments could include streaming and improving outdated and clunky customer service processes, digitising inefficient and complex programmes and back-office processes, and modernising debt collection while reducing fraud.

“Low-code can revolutionise how government designs and builds IT. It can help a business to get what it wants and needs from a new system, not the system the IT team thinks the business needs.”

Additionally, he says this approach can bridge the frequent divide between business users, subject matter experts, product owners, and the technical design and developer teams.

Where, though, should the public sector focus its investment now? Crowcroft contends that it is less where and more how the money should be spent, celebrating the increased adoption of AI. “During the pandemic, the public sector successfully used AI and automation to meet increased demand for services,” he says. 

“AI can automate bureaucratic processes that are currently resource-intensive, reducing the human workload. This will offer cost-savings, improve accuracy, and enable people to do other things that have a positive return for their organisations, such as analysing data to identify where other improvements can be made.”

An example of this is in the care sector, says Crowcroft. By automating some of the paperwork, the amount of time a care worker can spend with people in need increases. “The processes at the human level are reflected in documentation, and that shouldn’t be the case anymore,” he adds.

One obvious way for the public sector to reduce costs is by being smarter with outsourcing while improving in-house skills. For instance, the value of contracts awarded by the UK government and public bodies to consultants was £2.5bn in 2020-21, as organisations used the private sector to deal with the pandemic. 

“Consultants will always have a place in the public sector,” concludes Crowcroft. “But using technology to unlock data insights and training our people to understand the information – will improve confidence in their decision-making.”

Is low-code the answer to public sector worries?

“The government knows that low-code can help take the pressure off and has invited proposals for innovative platforms and software for digital public services,” says Mark Smitham, lead for public sector marketing at Mendix, a low-code platform. “Their shared vision is to deliver more user-centred, cost-effective, local public services through open, collaborative and reusable work.”

He suggests Knowsley Council is a prime example of a local service provider that used low-code to adapt to the increased demand from residents and local businesses. “In just 24 hours, the council built an application that enables Knowsley residents to request assistance or volunteer their services to support their local community,” Smitham continues. “This application connected people who need help with those who can help, providing support for 7,000 vulnerable residents.”

Elsewhere, a low-code platform is being used to address the growing issue of financial debt with core business transformation at StepChange, the UK’s largest debt management charity, says Alex Case, public sector industry principal at Pegasystems. “Additionally, low-code solutions are being deployed to tackle costly fraud and errors for the Department for Work and Pensions. It is transforming how the country registers land and property, and even supporting how the Ministry of Defence recruits essential skills to predict and deal with a fast-paced and changing environment.”

This article was first published in Raconteur’s Public Sector Technology report in May 2022

Web creator Sir Tim Berners-Lee on the future of data

Data literacy will drive innovation, easing global warming and empowering citizens, according to Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Sir Nigel Shadbolt

Billions of us use the World Wide Web as our primary tool to interact online. Today, its creator Sir Tim Berners-Lee is on a new mission: to ensure data is used appropriately to create the public sector of the future.

Berners-Lee partnered with artificial intelligence (AI) expert Sir Nigel Shadbolt in 2012 to found the Open Data Institute (ODI). At the ODI Summit in early November, the pair of computer scientists warned that now is a pivotal moment. As we hurtle into the digital era powered by data-hungry algorithms and AI, it’s critical to collaborate with good intentions and maximise the potential of technology, for the sake of the planet and its inhabitants. 

The acceleration of digital transformation necessitated by the coronavirus chaos is exciting, but there’s a responsibility for authorities around the world to keep pace with this incredible change. Those in power must set standards, encourage data to be opened and shared responsibly, and narrow the ever-widening skills gap. The quicker that data literacy in both private and public sectors can be improved, the better for everyone.

As Berners-Lee points out, the pandemic has unconsciously boosted public awareness of how data can save and enrich lives. “Something that took off hugely was communication through data, with the government telling us to ‘flatten the curve’ [and limit the spread of the virus],” he says. “I would imagine that the data literacy of the general population has gone up a chunk.” 

Driving change 

By improving their data literacy, leaders and members of the public could understand and challenge how data is presented, Shadbolt suggests. As public sector technology and its application develops in the coming years, fuelled by more and better-quality data, greater scrutiny will help shape products and services for the digital era. 

The opening of more data sources will super-charge the public sector of the future and drive innovation, says Shadbolt. The chair of the ODI – who’s been principal of Jesus College at Oxford University since 2015, among other roles – points to the success of open data pioneer Transport for London (TfL). Often held up as an exemplar of open data, TfL offers data feeds and guidelines about air quality, cycling, walking, planning and more. 

In 2017, Deloitte calculated that TfL’s release of open data generated annual economic benefits and savings of up to £130 million for travellers, the capital and the organisation itself. Additionally, many private businesses have taken advantage and cashed in on the open application programming interfaces (APIs).

“Imagine that a lot of data relevant to everything climate-related was just being routinely published using standard APIs,” Shadbolt continues. “It’s what we saw happen with TfL. And there’s just a bunch of sectors and areas to go for.”

However, it can be dangerous to blindly follow data. Shadbolt wonders whether Boris Johnson’s refrain during the pandemic that the government would “follow the data” to justify its pandemic-related decisions coronavirus sent out the wrong message. “It was quite a bad phrase, in some respects,” he says, “because while there should be a basic ability to understand the data, we need to interrogate and critique that data.”

Data can be good, but it never gives a complete picture

Questioning data sources is not just essential to fight fake news on social media and elsewhere – it will also enable public sector organisations to build greater trust, Berners-Lee says. With more connected data, they could trigger a shift from reactive to proactive services. 

It’s a virtuous circle, because trusted and quality datasets will widen the possibilities and reach of public sector technology and empower citizens. “Provenance is important for data quality, and provenance is important for trust,” he says.

Building trust

For example, Berners-Lee says a doctor should be able to look at the digital notes of a person with diabetes and open a data narrative explaining how this diagnosis was made and other relevant history. Public trust in the data used by the public sector is central to the adoption of technologies and services, he points out.

The general public seemed to go into different categories regarding coronavirus data, Berners-Lee says. Some accepted recommendations for pushing the curve down, but others “don’t listen to the same people as we might. Instead, they find groups of people –

the conspiracy theorists – usually on social media, who make up all kinds of strange things about the pandemic, vaccines or climate change, for that matter.”

Shadbolt says experts act in good faith with the information available at a specific time, but their visibility is limited if they have scant amounts of data. The wider the variety of good quality data sources, the fuller the picture. “We’ve talked a lot about how it’s important, particularly during the pandemic, not to regard the scientists, medics and people in white coats as telling you the whole truth,” he says. “They’re trying to give the best information, very often under conditions of considerable uncertainty.” We must take a nuanced approach, he argues, understanding that “the data can be good, but it never gives a complete picture.”

Those in the public sector and beyond must be “critically reflective” of data. “All our responses are made, in a sense, standing on the edge of error. But that’s what science is: it can believe something is wrong and can revise what we believe as these things unfold.” 

While the collaborative use of data will create smarter public services in the UK, this approach is crucial on a larger scale if humanity is to overcome its biggest challenges. It’s been vital in the response to coronavirus, while a cooperative, non-competitive and can-do attitude is also essential to reduce global warming.

“We’ve just been living through an existential crisis – a global pandemic – and we’re in the midst of another one unfolding, with the climate challenge,” says Shadbolt. “Data will be an essential part of [solving this]: the infrastructure, the institutions we might need, the trust we have [in its use], and our literacy.”

Sir Patrick Vallance, the UK’s chief scientific advisor, echoed this view at the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26). He warned that the challenge of global warming is a greater risk than Covid-19 and more people will die from it than the pandemic if the public sector doesn’t act quickly. Vallance also said the climate crisis could last 100 years and require “a combination of technology and behavioural change”.

Provenance is important for data quality, and provenance is important for trust

Shadbolt concurs but stresses that opening data and boosting cross-sector collaboration will accelerate meaningful change on a macro and micro scale and increase the capabilities of public sector technology. “While environment data is in the news because of COP26, there is other information that can help spur action,” he says, hinting that greater transparency from public sector organisations will ratchet up pressure on private companies to keep clean. For example, he notes that data on utility companies discharging sewage will help the Environment Agency, which struggles with funds and support. 

“We are starting to gain a sense of what data’s going to make a difference – everything from emissions to insulation. There’s a whole network of interconnected data types that we can bring together, much of it held in the public sector, and some of it held in the private sector,” he says. “We need to begin that work on joint public-private enterprises, though we are beginning to see the private sector, with its commitments to ESG, saying ‘we now have to have a public purpose as well as a private one.’” Publishing some of this data “would be a great first step”, he adds. 

Information advantage

Berners-Lee and Shadbolt were appointed as information advisors to the government in June 2009. The duo led the team that developed data.gov.uk, a single point of access for UK non-personal governmental public data. This offers real-time information on a range of topics, such as government spending, digital service performance, crime and justice, transport and more.

When the pair founded the not-for-profit ODI nine years ago, the mission was to “connect, equip and inspire people around the world to innovate with data”. Almost a decade later, the ODI continues to provide free and paid-for training courses and learning materials both in-house and online. These cover theory and practice surrounding data publishing and use. The ODI has long championed open data as a public good, but always emphasised that effective governance models are necessary to protect citizens.

Some 20 months since the start of the coronavirus crisis, people are beginning to appreciate the ODI’s work and concerns around data standards. “When the pandemic began we provided a data publication template,” says Shadbolt. “The challenge was so many people wanted to contribute data. It needed sorting and we had to determine what was helpful. If there was just a little more awareness around open standards to publish data, so that it is in a more interoperable format, it would be better for everyone.”

For public sector technology to thrive, however, public trust is critical, says Berners-Lee, who notes a difference in attitudes to tech in the UK compared to the US. “Typically in the UK people trust the government and don’t trust [the tech] industry, and in the US people trust industry and don’t trust the government,” he says. More should be done to assuage fears about how tech giants handle user data, he adds. “To an extent, it’s how people are brought up and therefore cultural. But for people in the UK to trust these large American companies then you need to have serious legislation and regulation.”

The backlash against the allegedly avaricious Facebook, which according to a recent whistleblower puts user engagement ahead of safety, is a cautionary tale for public sector organisations seeking to embrace technology solutions and partner with companies without fully knowing their policies on data privacy and other questionable values, suggests Berners-Lee. More than ever, at the outset, digital products must be “good by design”.

Data management is integral to these processes. Here too the coronavirus has proven useful, testing the robustness of so-called ‘trusted research environments’. “In these environments, the data stays behind a firewall and it’s modelled and analysed with tools that can go behind the firewall,” Shadbolt explains. “The data never actually leaves the highly secure data storage areas where 47 million patient records are linked, but incredible insights are gained.”

Offering an alternative, he says: “The other solution is to leave the data with the people who generate it, which is very local. There are different technical solutions there and there are different institutions we can build to share this. It’s a complicated area, but the ODI is looking very carefully at making data sharing more effective.”

Unfinished business

What does the future hold for the ODI as it nears its 10-year anniversary? “We started off explaining to people working in the public sector how to put your data on the web,” says Berners-Lee. Now, however, “we realise it’s important to cover the whole spectrum, from public to private, but it’s also about developing policies as well.”

This assessment chimes with Shadbolt. “There is unfinished business,” he says. “The whole commitment to getting data out there was started with open data initiatives that were very much focused around the public sector – everything from hospital data to educational data to transport data. That work has gone well. We’re now looking at extending those learnings. As governments move on [in their digital transformation journeys], you want to ensure that momentum is kept up and that the infrastructure is there to help sustain publishing the data out.”

Returning to the global climate crisis, he says of the ODI’s mission: “We did anticipate that in trying to build a trusted research data ecosystem it would become one of the consequential questions for the future of the planet and the future of our wellbeing. There’s a huge amount of work to do. We’re trying to make sense of it in terms of programmes of work, from data literacy to institutions, from ethics to infrastructure.”

Shadbolt adds: “Fundamentally the ODI’s work is about listening, it’s about trying to take ideas and put them in a format that allows that to scale. We may be an organisation of 60-odd people but we think we can have a fantastic impact and so we need to reach out and sustain ourselves to make a better future.”

This article was first published in Raconteur’s Public Sector Technology report in December 2021

Enriching and empowering: realising the potential of data-enabled public services

Out of necessity, public bodies dialled up their digital services during the pandemic, but now is a pivotal moment to consider how to achieve a joined-up, secure, frictionless citizen experience

When considering the rapid and radical shift to digital services in the public sector during the coronavirus crisis, Ernest Hemingway’s line from The Sun Also Rises of bankruptcy happening “gradually, then suddenly” comes to mind. In this case, though, the prognosis is somewhat more optimistic.

The hurried but necessary jump into the digital era has enabled people to be empowered and enriched by data-driven public services. Now the leap has been made, the direction of travel is clear. However, there is still work to be done before achieving a connected, frictionless digital experience that benefits the state and its citizens.

“Data-driven, smart digital technologies have provided crucial support to public bodies through the pandemic, but they’ve also allowed our under-pressure services to become smarter and more responsive to our needs as citizens,” says Steve Thorn, executive director at Civica, whose software helps sustain and enhance public services around the world.

“For some public services, the digital journey was already well underway, and the pandemic catalysed this journey. For others, such as our schools, the pandemic required a more fundamental change, with face-to-face teaching giving way to online classrooms.”

Thorn singles out the track and trace applications and vaccination certificates as “prime examples of the power of data-driven, smart technologies to deliver better outcomes for citizens,” and says that more outstanding capabilities are within reach. But, he warns, the government must take its next steps carefully. 

“Public bodies across Britain and the rest of the world already sit on rich seams of data, which are growing by the day as our society becomes more digitised,” he says. “Raw data is, though, of little value. Data must be collected, managed, used and shared effectively if it is to deliver any real benefits.”

Standards, skills and sharing

To better navigate the route ahead, with the ultimate goal of providing a connected, frictionless customer experience to citizens, Civica works with the public sector on what it calls the three ‘Ss’ – namely standards, skills and sharing. 

Thorn says: “Any public body, be it a parish council or Whitehall department, must ensure that it has robust standards in place for managing data, the right people with the right skills to use that data and finally, processes in place to share data safely and effectively, so it is it is delivering the best outcomes for the greater number of people.”

Andrew Hood, chief executive of Edinburgh-based analytics consultancy Lynchpin, agrees that now is a good time for the public sector to reflect on the good and the bad digital offerings throughout the coronavirus crisis. He sees great potential in Internet of Things (IoT) technology but similarly urges caution. “The pandemic has surfaced a lot of the practical opportunities and threats around data sharing and IoT in obvious terms when viewed through the lens of things like contact tracing apps and digital vaccine passports,” Hood says.

For some public services, the digital journey was already well underway, and the pandemic catalysed this journey. For others, such as our schools, the pandemic required a more fundamental change, with face-to-face teaching giving way to online classrooms

He points to the different strategies taken by the UK’s four nations in terms of deploying open source versus proprietary solutions. “There is potentially much to learn from what has worked well and less well when considering other similar applications outside of the pandemic,” he says.

“Whether to centralise or decentralise how data is shared across millions of devices became a very key consideration for contact-tracing apps. How [do we] achieve enough sharing to enable the outcome of alerting those that had been nearby others without creating Minority Report-style databases of the movements of the entire population?”

The software robot revolution 

For David Burrows, public sector industries leader at UiPath, a robotic process automation dollar unicorn, the benefits of the public sector doubling down on automation and IoT technologies to create a more streamlined physical service for citizens – for example, with smart roads, touch-fre metering and much more – are compelling. 

Further, with the UK effectively gaining data sovereignty post-Brexit, the government is perfectly positioned to speed ahead of other European nations if all key stakeholders use the exact strategy roadmap and collaborate.

But to improve citizens’ experiences and public services, alike, and to make use of better infrastructure, it comes back to managing data. “Automation is one tool being used by UK government to achieve the frictionless digital experience needed to improve public services and more effectively serve citizens,” says Burrows. “As software robots can handle huge volumes of data more quickly and efficiently than humans can, it can significantly streamline back-office activity and reduce the risk of administrative bottlenecks.”

He points to the recent work UiPath has done with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs’ National Licencing and Permitting Service for water abstraction – taking water from an underground or surface source, such as a river, stream or canal. “Once the team has made the technical expert decision on whether a licence should be issued or rejected, there is significant administration to be done to inform the applicant and to update internal and external consultees and the IT system,” says Burrows.

Now, software robots can handle this admin work, cutting the non-decision-making admin down from 65 minutes per transaction to just shy of seven minutes. “The result,” he says, “is that citizens can have their licenses in a fraction of the time, all while public servants can concentrate on more valuable work.”

Looking further ahead, Burrows adds: “With some 22% of government infrastructure decision makers recently telling Forrester that their departments will implement RPA in some shape or form by the end of this year, there is no doubt that automation will continue to play a significant role in government customer strategy.”

Also scanning the horizon and hoping for more joined-up public services and tools that will enrich the lives of citizens, is Thorn. “The pandemic has provided many great examples of how digital technologies can solve individual challenges – be that supporting homeschooling or allowing GPs to interact with patients at a distance. But digital transformation is more than solutions to individual problems.”

Offering a final word of advice, he adds: “Digital transformation is a wider journey towards a future where our public services are ultimately better able to anticipate and respond to our changing needs as citizens and as a society.”

And, as encouraging as the progress that has been made in the last two years especially has been, we are at a pivotal moment. As such, the potential of connected public services is likely to be realised gradually, not suddenly – and that’s no bad thing.

This article, sponsored by Vonage, was first published on Raconteur in December 2021

Could the pandemic have been predicted?

Governing in advance may seem like something from science fiction, but by using artificial intelligence and predictive analytics, experts say it’s possible

When the coronavirus pandemic hit UK businesses in the spring, forcing organisations to lock down, it required open minds to grasp technology and reimagine ways of working. Government and the public sector sought to solve challenges old and new, including rushing through essential financial support to companies and their furloughed staff, and improve service delivery and data-driven decision-making by dialling up investment in tech, especially artificial intelligence (AI).

After all, with predictive analytics, governments can conceivably prevent, rather than cure, issues or respond to citizens’ needs before they arise. But how far off are we from governing in advance? And what are the ethical implications of such a system?

Around the world, there are numerous narrow-scope use cases of authorities using predictive analytics to life-saving and life-enhancing effect. In Durham, North Carolina, the police department reported a 39 per cent drop in violent crime from 2007 to 2014 after using AI to observe patterns and interrelations in criminal activities and to identify hotspots, thus enabling quicker interventions.

Also in the United States, AI has helped reduce human trafficking by locating and rescuing thousands of victims. Knowing that approximately 75 per cent of child trafficking involves online advertisements, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency developed a platform using software that monitors suspicious online ads, detects code words, and infers connections between them and trafficking rings.

Further afield, the Indonesian government has partnered with a local tech startup to better predict natural disasters. By analysing historical flood data, collected from sensors, and accessing citizen-complaint data, prone areas can now be quickly identified, speeding up the emergency response and improving management.

Actionable intelligence and data scientists needed

In the UK, the public sector has much work to do, and requires people to do it, if governing in advance is to become a reality, says David Shrier, adviser to the European Parliament in the Centre for AI. “More investment in predictive analytics will help with risk mitigation, although this exacerbates the already extant shortage of data scientists who can develop and manage these models.”

Predicting trends through data analysis is vital for governments and has been for some time. “Forecasting approaches using historical data to build mathematical predictive models have been core to government economic policy for decades,” says Andrew Hood, chief executive of Edinburgh-headquartered analytics consultancy Lynchpin. “Whether those models allow governments to govern in advance effectively depends on to what extent they have enough political motivation and capital to apply the model outputs directly.

It’s too tempting to see predictive analytics as a magical answer, a black box that can solve all our challenges

“Arguably, there has been no shortage of predictive models kicking around as the pandemic took hold. However, the pandemic also points to the reality of a lot of prediction and forecasting: it is not about having one crystal ball to rely on, rather a set of predictions based on the best data to hand that need to be reviewed constantly, updated and critically applied.”

Hood stresses that skilled humans must remain in the driving seat and warns of the dangers of solely relying on technology to steer choices. “As with any application of predictive analytics,” he says, “it is the integration of those models within the context of governing and the processes of human decision-making that is the critical success factor.”

Public trust in AI must be won

Futurist Tom Cheesewright, whose job is to predict trends, posits that predictive analytics is “one subset of a wider array of foresight tools for scanning near and far horizons”. Should governments be making better use of such tools? “Absolutely,” he answers. “But I think it’s too tempting with predictive analytics to see this as a magical answer, a black box that can solve all our challenges. It’s not like Minority Report-style predictive justice. It’s about pulling policy levers in time to dodge obstacles or maximise opportunities.”

Echoing Hood’s advice, Cheesewright adds: “Foresight needs time and investment of cash and political capital, both of which are in short supply in our volatile, post-austerity era.”

Nick McQuire, of specialist technology market intelligence and advisory firm CCS Insight, says: “Historically, the public sector has been behind most sectors in terms of maturity in deploying and investing in AI,” but senses the purse strings are being loosened. “We are starting to see more AI applications in the public sector: chatbots, contact centre assistance and demand forecasting,” says the senior vice president and head of enterprise research.

AI has been excoriated in the UK media this year, though, making citizens and politicians wary of the tech and by extension predictive analytics. “Public confidence in AI is not high,” McQuire concedes. “To build trust in AI, organisations are now having to double-down on areas like data governance and security, privacy, explainability and ethics.”

It didn’t help that prime minister Boris Johnson, the most powerful politician in the UK, blamed the Ofqual exam-marking fiasco in August on “a mutant algorithm”, says Dr Jeni Tennison, vice president and chief strategy adviser at the Open Data Institute. “We have to recognise people are at the heart of designing algorithms; it’s not that algorithms go off and mutate on their own and we have no control over them,” she says. “We need to ensure there is a good end-to-end process that recognises the AI isn’t always going to get things right.”

Tennison, a fervent supporter of open data, believes those in the public sector must take care of how they deploy the technology. And, as such, predictive analytics, if applied, should be closely managed. “Algorithms that are used by the public sector have a much bigger impact on people’s lives. Government has a particular responsibility to make sure it uses AI and data well,” she says.

“Right now we’re operating from a position where people distrust the use of algorithms. The public sector has to be very proactive and win that trust.”

Given the public scepticism around AI, and the paucity of data scientists to make best use of predictive analytics, it seems we are some way off the UK governing in advance. Ethically, perhaps that is no bad thing.

This article was originally published in Raconteur’s Public Sector Technology report in December 2020

Fighting fraud in times of crisis

Cybercrime is always distressing for those affected, but when the resultant losses come from the public purse, it must be taken even more seriously

Coronavirus has coursed through every facet of our lives, and society and business have already paid a colossal price to restrict its flow. We will be counting the cost for years, if not decades. And while people have become almost anaesthetised to the enormous, unprecedented sums of support money administered by the government, it was still painful to learn, in October, that taxpayers could face losing up to £26 billion on COVID-19 loans, according to an alarming National Audit Office report.

Given the likely scale of abuse, it raises the question of how authorities should go about eliminating public sector fraud? Could artificial intelligence (AI) fraud detection be the answer?

Admittedly, the rapid deployment of financial-aid schemes, when the public sector was also dealing with a fundamental shift in service delivery, created opportunities for both abuse and risk of systematic error. Fraudsters have taken advantage of the coronavirus chaos. But their nefariousness is not limited to the public sector.

Ryan Olson, vice president of threat intelligence at American multinational cybersecurity organisation Palo Alto Networks, says COVID-19 triggered “the cybercrime gold rush of 2020”.

Indeed, the latest crime figures published at the end of October by the Office for National Statistics show that, in the 12 months to June, there were approximately 11.5 million offences in England and Wales. Some 51 per cent of them were made up of 4.3 million incidents of fraud and 1.6 million cybercrime events, a year-on-year jump of 65 per cent and 12 per cent respectively.

Cybercrime gold rush – counting the cost

Jim Gee, national head of forensic services at Crowe UK, a leading audit, tax, advisory and risk firm, says: “Even more worryingly, while the figures are for a 12-month period, a comparison with the previous quarterly figures shows this increase has occurred in the April-to-June period of 2020, the three months after the COVID-19 health and economic crisis hit. The size of the increase needed in a single quarter to result in a 65 per cent increase over the whole 12 months could mean actual increases of up to four times this percentage.”

In terms of eliminating public sector fraud, Mike Hampson, managing director at consultancy Bishopsgate Financial, fears an expensive game of catch-up. “Examples of misuse have increased over the last few months,” he says. “These include fraudulent support-loan claims and creative scams such as criminals taking out bounce-back loans in the name of car dealerships, in an attempt to buy high-end sports cars.”

AI fraud detection and machine-learning algorithms should be put in the driving seat to pump the brakes on iniquitous activity, he argues. “AI can certainly assist in carrying out basic checks and flagging the most likely fraud cases for a human to review,” Hampson adds.

John Whittingdale, media and data minister, concedes that the government “needs to adapt and respond better”, but says AI and machine-learning are now deemed critical to eliminating public sector fraud. “As technology advances, it can be used for ill, but at the same time we can adapt new technology to meet that threat,” he says. “AI has a very important part to play.”

Teaming up with technology leaders

Technology is already vital in eliminating public sector fraud at the highest level. In March, the Cabinet Office rolled out Spotlight, the government grants automated due-diligence tool built on a Salesforce platform. Ivana Gordon, head of the government grants management function COVID-19 response at the Cabinet Office, says Spotlight “speeds up initial checks by processing thousands of applications in minutes, replacing manual analysis that, typically, can take at least two hours per application”. The tool draws on open datasets from Companies House, the Charity Commission and 360Giving, plus government databases that are not available to the public.

“Spotlight has proven robust and reliable,” says Gordon, “supporting hundreds of local authorities and departments to administer COVID-19 funds quickly and efficiently. To date Spotlight has identified around 2 per cent of payment irregularities, enabling grant awards to be investigated and payments halted to those who are not eligible.”

We need to watch how the technology fits into the whole process. AI doesn’t get things right 100 per cent of the time

She adds that Spotlight is one of a suite of countermeasure tools, including AI fraud detection, developed with technology companies, and trialled and implemented across the public sector to help detect and prevent abuse and error.

Besides, critics shouldn’t be too hard on the public sector, argues David Shrier, adviser to the European Parliament in the Centre for AI, because it was “understandably dealing with higher priorities, like human life, which may have distracted somewhat from cybercrime prevention”. He believes that were it not for the continued investment in the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), the cost of fraudulent activity would have been significantly higher.

Work to be done to prevent fraud

Greg Day, vice president and chief security officer, Europe, Middle East and Africa, at Palo Alto Networks, who sits on Europol’s cybersecurity advisory board, agrees. Day points to the success of the government’s Cyber Essentials digital toolkit. He thinks, however, that the NCSC must “further specialise, tailor its support and advice, and strengthen its role as a bridge into information both from the government, but also trusted third parties, because cyber is such an evolving space”.

The public sector has much more to do in combating cybercrime and fraud prevention on three fronts, says Peter Yapp, who was deputy director of incident management at the NCSC up to last November. It must encourage more reporting, make life difficult for criminals by upping investment in AI fraud detection and reallocate investigative resources from physical to online crime, he says.

Yapp, who now leads law firm Schillings’ cyber and information security team, says a good example of an initiative that has reduced opportunity for UK public sector fraud is the NCSC’s Mail Check, which monitors 11,417 domains classed as public sector. “This is used to set up and maintain good domain-based message authentication, reporting and conformance (DMARC), making email spoofing much harder,” he says. Organisations that deploy DMARC can ensure criminals do not successfully use their email addresses as part of their campaigns.”

While such guidance is welcome, there are potential problems with embracing tech to solve the challenge of eliminating public sector fraud, warns Dr Jeni Tennison, vice president and chief strategy adviser at the Open Data Institute. If unchecked, AI fraud detection could be blocking people and businesses that are applying for loans in good faith, or worse, she says.

“We need to watch out how the technology and AI fit into the whole process,” says Tennison. “As we have seen this year, with the Ofqual exam farrago, AI doesn’t get things right 100 per cent of the time. If you assume it is perfect, then when it doesn’t work, it will have a very negative impact on the people who are wrongly accused or badly affected to the extent they, and others, are fearful of using public sector services.”

There are certainly risks with blindly following any technology, concurs Nick McQuire, senior vice president and head of enterprise research at CCS Insight. But the public sector simply must arm itself with AI or the cost to the taxpayer will be, ultimately, even more significant. “Given the scale of the security challenge, particularly for cash-strapped public sector organisations that lack the resources and skills to keep up with the current threat environment, AI, warts and all, is going to become a crucial tool in driving automation into this environment to help their security teams cope.”

This article was originally published in Raconteur’s Public Sector Technology report in December 2020

Creating a culture of change

Legacy infrastructure and outmoded ways of thinking can trip up digital transformation projects in the public sector

Private sector organisations that began digital transformation before the coronavirus pandemic suffocated business as usual were equipped and agile enough to revamp their strategies and operations, and thrive despite the chaos.

And laggards quickly realised that to keep pace they needed to invest in digital technologies and accelerate digital transformation plans. Meanwhile, those operating in the public sector, lumbered with legacy systems unsuitable for the digital age, looked on with envy, twiddling their thumbs.

A slight exaggeration, perhaps, but it is a truism that the public sector is notoriously slow to embrace technology. There is a pervading sense, though, that COVID has necessitated a levelling-up across the sector.

Given the mass shift to remote working, the strain on public services, especially the National Health Service, and the immediate need to streamline operations and reduce spending while improving efficiencies, digital transformation is critical. As private sector business leaders can attest, change management is paramount when deploying new technologies and ways of working.

While there is great urgency for speedy improvement, it’s appropriate to acknowledge digital adoption within the UK public sector is well behind other countries. Johnny Hugill, head of research at PUBLIC, a govtech venture firm, notes that although many public services have been moved online, to http://www.gov.uk, the harmonisation of digital services has much ground to make up. For instance, he says, around 60 per cent of citizens fill out online forms to public authorities here, while digital front-runners such as Denmark, Norway, Estonia and South Korea enjoy rates of up to 80 per cent.

Constrained by legacy infrastructure

The coronavirus fallout served to expose the UK public sector’s woeful lack of readiness to operate in the digital era. Indeed, a meagre 6 per cent of public sector workers said they were “extremely prepared for the pandemic”, according to research published in mid-November by Pure Storage, a global data storage solutions firm.

More than two-thirds (67 per cent) responded that “legacy infrastructure is holding up digital transformation progress”. This hindrance leads to “increased operational costs, reduced efficiency, and reduced operational agility”, says Shaun Collings, Pure Storage’s director of public sector in the UK.

The organisation’s research suggests eight out of 10 public sector workers believe agile methodologies and design-thinking are more important now than before the pandemic. “Clearly, many are constrained by legacy infrastructure,” says Collings. “The challenges and upheaval that public sector organisations have been faced with should act as a catalyst for reviews of supporting infrastructure and consideration of what is needed for the future.”

This advice is supported by new data from SAP, which indicates that 28 per cent of UK civil servants say they still lack adequate IT systems to support remote working. Leila Romane, the enterprise software provider’s head of SuccessFactors in the UK and Ireland, says: “Public sector organisations often operate independently and many are burdened by old and siloed technology infrastructure, which has made digital innovation more challenging.

“In the private sector, however, technology is increasingly seen as a tool to drive efficiencies by sharing data across departments and geographies.” Romane urges public sector organisations to be more collaborative, digitally focused and flexible, not least because they will otherwise find it harder to attract and retain top young talent, she warns.

Collaboration with suitable tech partners is vital

While public sector leaders may realise the need, and show a willingness to upgrade their digital capabilities, there are, frustratingly, many hurdles to overcome. Professor Julie Hodges of Durham Business School lists them. Of the many barriers, budget constraints and legacy infrastructure is a big one. Lack of leadership and vision also ranks highly, as does a reluctance to change among managers and frontline staff. Possibly most limiting is a culture that does not support transformational change, says Hodges.

PUBLIC’s Hugill agrees. “Together, culture, skills and practice form a fairly significant stumbling block to getting the public sector on board with projects,” he says, making the case that tech companies and startups should be considered over traditional partners that might not be best placed to drive digital adoption.

“Public sector officials have fallen into a routine of ‘this is how we’ve always done it’ when choosing preferred suppliers. The truth is that these suppliers were often chosen because they were good at what they did 30 years ago, but then became better at winning contracts than they were at innovating.”

Culture, skills and practice form a fairly significant stumbling block to getting the public sector on board with projects

Thankfully, there is a growing list of case studies where public sector bodies have teamed up with tech organisations to great effect. For instance, the North East Ambulance Service (NEAS), a completely mobile and essential frontline organisation with 2,500 staff covering 32,000 square miles, uses Workplace from Facebook’s communication platform to enable employees to connect and communicate better with each other.

“When the pandemic hit, I wanted a safe and secure space for staff to ask questions, challenge each other, share stories and help us build a stronger team and supportive culture,” says Helen Ray, chief executive of NEAS. “Workplace has helped us move away from having conversations behind closed doors to more openness and transparency. The social media platform has helped to bring us closer together and instil a sense of belonging.”

The last word of advice for public sector leaders seeking to navigate their digital transformation journey, which once started should never stop, comes from Romane at SAP. “To drive change in any organisation, leaders need to first listen to their employees, especially those who are on the frontline,” she says. “Then empower them with the tools and training to manage the change effectively and efficiently. Finally, create a mechanism for them to collaborate and feedback any learnings about their experiences.”

This article was originally published in Raconteur’s Public Sector Technology report in December 2020