Minister outlines policy challenges for “Brexit Britain”

"Cabinet Office minister argues referendum outcome must be used as opportunity for drastic overhaul of policy design, procurement and Civil Service technology skills

Cabinet Office minister Matt Hancock has said the outcome of last month’s referendum vote in favour of ending the UK’s EU membership will require a drastic rethink of how the state and Civil Service function, particularly with regard to policy and digital service design.

Speaking at the Reform think tank in London this week, Hancock, who backed remaining in the EU during the run up to voting, argued it was now vital to rethink UK policy in a range of areas such as procurement and iterative policy design supported by technology.

The Cabinet Office minister said he expected that in a changing political landscape, individuals working on policy decisions would need to have a more comprehensive understanding of technology in order to adopt a more iterative approach to their work.

“Policy is now more interesting, and tech allows you to take a more iterative approach to policy making rather than doing policy-making in one part of the building and then the implementation elsewhere,” the minister told Government Computing.

With Home Secretary Theresa May expected to formerly succeed David Cameron as prime minister tomorrow (July 13), Hancock said the UK government had to reshape itself to once again perform many tasks “done on our behalf by the EU for a generation.”

He noted this was particularly the case for trade negotiations and competition policy that had largely been European mandated.

“For years, any small business selling to government has complained bitterly about the so-called Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) rules for public procurement. Bureaucratic and inflexible, they increase cost to taxpayers, and worse still put many small and innovative businesses off from serving the public altogether,” he said.

“EU procurement law is designed to prevent brown paper envelopes in exchange for bridge-building contracts. It is not designed to give a fledgling technology company the break they need to take their firm to the next level.”

Hancock argued that the situation had been improved through the launch of the Digital Marketplace procurement platform, which has supported smaller firms in undertaking bureaucratic requirements once and therefore avoiding a need to repeat the process each time.

Read the fukll article in Government Computing.