At the helm of government ICT: interview with Andy Nelson

In today's information-sharing age, can being CIO of such a huge IT user as the British government really be a part-time job? Sooraj Shah spoke to the man himself, Andy Nelson, to find out

Barely one month into his role as government CIO, Andy Nelson’s diary is filling up as he juggles the new appointment with the demands of his other job as CIO of the Ministry of Justice (MoJ).

In an interview with Computing, Nelson explained that his new role takes up only two days of his working week, while he devotes three days to the MoJ. Surely, this sends out a message to the UK IT community that being CIO of the British government, the country’s biggest single user of technology, is a mere part-time role – and that his departmental focus is the bigger deal?

Nelson argued that the two roles are complementary. “The MoJ strategy is based on datacentres, standardised desktops, a single network, green IT – a lot of the same agenda items [as the government’s ICT strategy], so there is a strong overlap with my roles,” he said.

“If the agenda wasn’t so aligned, it would be a bigger challenge. But because they are, what we’re doing at the MoJ reinforces and, in some cases, leads to parts of the implementation of the [government ICT] strategy,” he said.

Naturally, it’s to be expected that a major, central department’s technology strategy would be aligned with Whitehall’s overall goals for UK IT implementation, but how does Nelson deal with any criticism of his two-day working week at the centre of government?

“There is a danger of that, but if [people] were to talk to the suppliers, to the government ICT team, and to colleagues of mine at the CIO Delivery Board [CIOs from large departments, such as HMRC], I am confident that they would all say that I am engaged, not passive,” he insisted.

Nelson seemed at pains to point out that his is an active role, and that he is “far more of an executive chairman” than a “passive chairman”.

“I’m far more hands-on in terms of driving [the ICT strategy],” he said. “It’s not a passive, stand-back role, it’s proper engagement, and that’s why I have to be very focused on where I spend my time,” he said.

Nelson said that his principal task is the government’s ICT strategy implementation plan, and ensuring that this is always moving forwards in line with other government strategies.

Another focus, he said, is his role as head of the Government IT Profession, the professional group for those working in ICT across the public sector. Nelson chairs the organisation’s board, whose job it is to manage the implementation of the government ICT capability strategy.

But alongside his bulging in-tray, Nelson said that the rest of his job is all about engagement.

“It is engagement across government, with IT vendors, and with the media. With the industry, I’ll be focusing in on the top suppliers in government, in addition to spending time with SMEs and working closely with the IT industry body, Intellect,” he said.

“Another challenge is engagement across the CIO community in government, so I am tasked with reinvigorating that. The CIO council met for the first time last month,” he said.

Nelson explained that the engagement aspect of the job is something he shares with his new deputy, Liam Maxwell, and suggested that this means he goes about his role differently to some of his predecessors.

“Other aspects of the work that [former government CIO] John Suffolk would have carried out in the past, such as supplier and industry engagement, engagement in the international space, engagement with government CIOs and trade associations, are picked up by Liam Maxwell, who supports me.

“That’s broadly in line with what [Nelson’s predecessor] Joe Harley did. But I’m paying closer attention to the strategy tasks,” he said.

At the helm of government ICT: interview with Andy Nelson

In today's information-sharing age, can being CIO of such a huge IT user as the British government really be a part-time job? Sooraj Shah spoke to the man himself, Andy Nelson, to find out

Talk of strategy brings us to the heart of what Nelson’s and Maxwell’s appointments may be about, and at a time when the government’s uses of, and attitudes to, data are firmly in the spotlight.

Open data strategy

Recently, the government’s Open Data policy took a major step forward with the formal announcement of (and funding for) the Open Data Institute (ODI), which looks to exploit the commercial potential of open datasets, while working towards sustainable policy.

Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude has also spoken of the need to create a dynamic data-sharing culture at the heart of government and within areas such as the NHS. This policy trend was reinforced by the publication in May of the NHS information strategy, which talked of local innovation among a mix of public and private suppliers to find new ways of sharing data.

In other areas, however, the government has been accused of rather less transparency than it claims for itself, such as Health Secretary Andrew Lansley’s use of the veto to prevent publication of the NHS Transition Risk Register. This led Information Commissioner Christopher Graham to urge the government – in a strongly worded statement – to clarify the Freedom of Information Act in terms of the circumstances in which information can be suppressed.

As CIO, information policy and the technology to support it must, at the very least, inform Nelson’s role – a role made doubly interesting by his Justice focus and experience.

“Inevitably in government you will have some genuine debates about what data is kept private and what is kept open,” he told Computing.

“In my world – the criminal justice system – you ask ‘what sort of data do you make open?’ You can lay open general data around cases and crime statistics, but how hard do you go down on individual data? There have to be lines drawn in some cases.”

“Some cases”, of course, is the question: what are those cases? In other words, where does open data end and private data begin? From an ICT strategy perspective, Nelson said that the government intends to be transparent, but each category needs to be analysed to determine how much information within it can be shared.

“In our One Year On report, of the first set of metrics I ask, is the data as complete as I would like? No. Is the data as clean as I would like? No. But we didn’t shy away from publishing it.

“To have absolute intent to be transparent and open, you have to recognise that there are elements of data, and areas of it, where it is not the right thing to do and I’m sure the public would agree. If you ask citizens to what degree they would share their private data, [they would say] only a summary of information,” he said.

Nelson was insistent that his role as government CIO does not have to be full-time, as issues around open data and the government’s so-called “snooping” plans do not, he said, fall within his remit.

“If you are thinking about the data agenda, things like transparency, then there are other people in other teams that are working in that space.

“What myself, government departments and CIOs have to do to support government is find out how we technically provide data. And in terms of sharing data I need to be looking at the ICT space and not the broader remit. Government decides the stance to take from this data,” he said.

Nelson underlined two of the main challenges for government in implementing its ICT strategy.

“The first is to try to align the digital strategy, transparency agenda and civil service reform to ensure that we’ve got an integrated strategy. The digital agenda is crucial, as departments come up with their digital strategies by the autumn. The CIO Delivery Board are doing some work to ensure that it looks at that in terms of any implications for the ICT strategy.

“The second challenge is a cultural one, for the government departments to work together. I’m encouraged by our Delivery Board people working together as a group, and this is one of the reasons we’ve had some success in the past year,” he said.

• Additional reporting Chris Middleton