Kevin Cunnington to take over as head of Government Digital Service

Musical chairs continue at GDS as Cunnington replaces Stephen Foreshew-Cain

Kevin Cunnington has become the latest name on the boss's door at the Government Digital Service, replacing Stephen Foreshew-Cain as the executive director of the centralised government IT organisation.

Cunnington will shift from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), where he was director general for business transformation. He also brings with him private sector experience with Goldman Sachs and Vodafone.

News of Cunnington's promotion comes on the same day that HMRC confirmed the departure of Mark Dearnley as chief digital and information officer.

Civil service CEO John Manzoni said that Cunnington had earned the role due to the successful introduction of a range of digital services at the DWP. "He combines that proven track record with a deep understanding of the business transformation necessary to ensure that the full benefits of digital investment are realised," said Manzoni.

Cabinet Office minister Ben Gummer, meanwhile, added that Cunnington's brief will be "to build on the outstanding legacy of Mike Bracken and Foreshew-Cain, to work with governments departments to continue the transformation of government services so that we can better serve the public, and to continue the global leadership in digital transformation that GDS is rightly famed for here and abroad".

However, Cunnington may have to contend with infighting across the civil service for control of IT budgets and strategic direction, which the establishment of the GDS in 2010 had yanked from departments to the GDS, to the chagrin of many civil servants.

Andrew Greenway, one of the growing number of GDS refugees, suggested that it was a battle that the GDS has been losing ever since the general election in 2015.

"What's playing out in the shadows of this strange summer is a timeless Whitehall battle. On one side those who seek to direct from the centre, on the other, big departments who prefer to be left to their own devices. It's a battle that goes back 150 years. The centre is not holding," observed Greenway.

He forecast that the GDS would almost certainly end up being smothered by Whitehall bureaucrats, who always resented the outsider taking power and budgets away from civil service departments and telling them what to do. Greenway partially blamed Manzoni.

"The defenestration of GDS has accelerated under the reign of John Manzoni. This is perplexing. The civil service's CEO is there to drive big institutional priorities past departmental parochialism. Digital is one of these, giving it a seat at the top table. Yet as GDS' influence has degraded, chief digital officer (CDO) roles in departments are also disappearing. Kevin's departure comes hard on the heels of the Home Office scrapping its own CDO role," he added.

"In fairness to John [Manzoni], this illustrates his limited licence to act. The person calling the shots is the cabinet secretary, Jeremy Heywood; ultimately, this is on his watch.

"If history is any guide, we can now expect to see some of the following over the next 12 months. Having taken a big step towards handing GDS' levers to a traditional ‘big' department, we can expect the unpicking of previous spending agreements with the Treasury to follow. Control over spending will loosen. Impressive announcements will be made with deadlines landing long over the horizon. Teams will be re-named," he predicted.

"GDS' driving philosophy was to put public needs before the bureaucratic machine's own needs. This made it unpopular with some civil servants. It provoked the ire of people at the very top, generally those who spoke behind closed doors with the deepest contempt for the people they served... When it comes to services, it seems our most senior public servants would still rather listen to themselves, rather than the public," concluded Greenway.