The government has announced five new challenges for the UK’s GovTech companies, as part of a programme that enables private sector firms to come up with ideas to solve digital problems in the public sector.

Speaking at the ICT conference this week, minister for implementation Oliver Dowden set out the third round of challenges open to bids for contracts under the £20 million GovTech Catalyst programme.

He highlighted the pace of innovation in the UK’s technology sector, but conceded that public sector projects services often lagged behind in offering the choices, solutions and user experience consumers have come to expect in the digital age.

“I want the government to think differently about how it can do things,” said Dowden.

“If you think about the consumer experience, it’s been revolutionised in the past decade, the way we live has changed.

“But this change has not yet been reflected in government, so I want to put the building blocks in place to ensure this can happen,” he explained.

The government should be able to lead the way in digital service if it becomes an “intelligence and co-ordinated buyer of emerging technologies”, said Dowden, and level the playing field for small and medium sized enterprises by helping them to “get their fair share of government contracts”.

The competition for the first bids in the third GovTech Catalyst round will begin on 4 March, starting with challenges identified by the following local authorities:

- Oxfordshire County Council: The management of autonomous vehicles in local traffic control systems.

- Leeds City Council: Use of sensor to monitor the condition of social housing and take steps to help vulnerable residents.

- Scottish National Heritage: Development of a digital tool to clarify the planning permission system.

- Torfaen County Council in Wales: Using data to model its social care model and reduce NHS ‘bed-blocking’.

- Waltham Forest Council in Greater London: Using geospatial technology to accelerate house building.

The minister added that the government is also launching an official review of geospatial technology with an Annual Plan due in March, ahead of the publication of the first UK Geospatial Strategy due by the end of the year.

Research estimates that more efficient use of geospatial data across a industries could be worth up to £11 billion per year.

Dowden paid tribute to the advances being made by the UK’s big data, artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain industries, which currently leads Europe for investment in tech startups.

He concluded: “The idea of this is to encourage collaboration between the public and private sectors to experiment together to find innovative solutions to public sector challenges.

“The strategy will guard against the risks, and there are risks that come with new technologies and digital developments. But it will also highlight the opportunities, and how departments can benefit from them to produce improved public services and better value for money.”

Share Story: