GDS £450m investment probably an 'accounting fudge' – gov IT analyst

Re: the "making tax digital” savings have been rated as “highly uncertain”

"Making tax digital" might as well mean, "counting it on our fingers," as far as successfully delivering any large IT project is concerned. By this government, or any previous one, dating back to the advent of counting machines.

Re: the "making tax digital” savings have been rated as “highly uncertain”

The Spending Review has one pot of money (£1.3 billion) for HMRC's computerisation and another pot (£1.8 billion) for every other bit of government. HMRC is special.

Of course it is. HMRC raises most of the money the government spends, the balance being made up with borrowing.

Thanks in part to the 15 year-old Government Gateway – the platform GDS rarely mention – HMRC has raised several trillion pounds this millennium.

It's not just the Gateway. You've got to hand it to HMRC. Organisations have been transacting digitally with HMRC, e.g. VAT returns, more and more, for years, and individuals, too, e.g. self-assessment. HMRC got that up and running. Before GDS existed. HMRC deployed iXBRL nationwide, which required major project management prowess. And RTI, too, where they provide free software to small employers and a support service that worked the one time I needed it.

Cutting the telephone support for taxpayers is a catastrophic mistake. Apart from that, the rest of Whitehall and local government have got a lot to learn from HMRC.

Yeah, but it's different in the civilized world...

Re: Poor old el Reg

No mention of kids or hoodies in the ElReg article.

The SIs are still firmly in control at DWP, DH, HMRC, HO, etc ... That's the problem. Despite all the talk of revolution, GDS haven't unseated them in the past four years and they don't look like doing so in future.

GDS have now been promised £450 million to change the relationship between people and the government. Suppose that read "PA Consulting have now been promised £450 million to change the relationship between people and the government". How would that be different?

Have GDS become an SI? They're inordinately pleased with themselves and they've got their quota of expensive failures and late deliveries. What else do they need to become full members of the SI club?

As things stand, you and I are going to have to look elsewhere for the revolution.