Key GDS functions 'transferred' from Cabinet Office to DCMS following digital turf war

Evisceration of Government Digital Service confirmed over Easter by Prime Minister's statement to Parliament

The government slipped out just before the Easter weekend news of the transfer of key functions of the Government Digital Service from the Cabinet Office, where it was established in October 2012 under Francis Maude, to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).

The written statement to Parliament "confirms that the data policy and governance functions of the Government Digital Service (GDS) will transfer from the Cabinet Office to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS)", and was published by Prime Minister Theresa May.

It continued: "The transfer includes responsibility for data sharing (including coordination of Part 5 of the Digital Economy Act 2017), data ethics, open data and data governance.

"At the same time policy responsibility for digital signatures will move from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) to DCMS, which will also jointly lead with BEIS on the relationship with the Open Data Institute, Digital Catapult and The Alan Turing Institute."

The changes, published on 29 March, became effective from 1 April.

The reasoning for the shift, given in the statement, was as follows: "The expanded Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport brings together in one place data policy for both government and the wider economy. This will support work, led by DCMS, to ensure the UK is fully realising the benefits of the data economy for all.

"GDS will continue its work supporting the ongoing digital transformation of government, building digital capability in the Civil Service and championing service design across government to meet user needs."

The shift was widely interpreted as the outcome of a turf war in Whitehall in which the traditional Civil Service re-asserted its control over technology, restoring power to individual departments to forge their own paths in terms of IT procurement and strategy, over-ruling the cross-government platform approach pushed by GDS since its inception.

It's also a political victory for ambitious minister Matt Hancock, Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. He will no doubt have made the point that with the ‘digital' role now within the portfolio of his expanding ministry that it made sense to place policy making functions of the GDS under his nominal authority, rather than the Cabinet Office.

Mike Bracken, creator of the GDS while Executive Director, Digital at the Cabinet Office from July 2011 to September 2015, was understandably critical of the move.

He described it as the "end of central UK authority for digital, data and technology" and added that it appeared that the "Whitehall power structure [is] more important than user needs".

Other commentators bemoaned the fragmentation of an "exemplar of good practice… undermined as no-one fights for it against powerful, old-school [civil] service heads who don't understand". Another described it as a "retrograde" move that would only benefit "grotesquely expensive consultants".