1.2 Successive governments have tried to transform public services through better use of technology. For example, in March 1999, the Cabinet Office's Modernising Government programme set out a vision for joined-up government, including moving public services online. Around 30 major cross-government strategies and initiatives followed over the next decade.5
1.3 In 2010, the Coalition Government commissioned a review on how government internet services could be transformed over the next few years.6 The review recommended: creating a single portal for all government services; opening up government information and transactional services for third-party access; and creating a single team in the Cabinet Office to take overall responsibility for digital channels, under a chief executive officer for digital.
1.4 Based on these recommendations, government proposed that all services would become 'digital by default'. In 2011, it set up GDS with the authority to:
• coordinate government digital activity and deliver on the recommendations of the review;
• transform the way people access government information by using digital technology to deliver services that put the user first; and
• give people the smartest and most cost-effective service possible.
1.5 The Government Digital Strategy in November 2012 set out in more detail the actions government would take to achieve these aims. It asked departments to produce their own digital strategies to support these.
_______________________________________________
5 The evolution of initiatives between 2000 and 2010 is outlined in our report: Comptroller and Auditor General, Information and communications technology in government: landscape review, Session 2010-11, HC 757, National Audit Office, February 2011.
6 Martha Lane Fox, Directgov 2010 and beyond: revolution not evolution, October 2010.