£45B savings remain theoretical as UK digital roadmap delayed again

The UK government has delayed publication of its long-promised digital roadmap, a plan it says could eventually help save up to £45 billion of taxpayers' money by modernizing creaking public sector IT.

Speaking to MPs last week, Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) permanent secretary Emran Mian said the Government Digital and AI Roadmap – meant to improve data sharing across government – was due by the end of last year, but had hit stumbling blocks.

The House of Commons Public Accounts Committee was hearing evidence about using data and analytics to reduce error and fraud in the public sector, which, according to the National Audit Office (NAO), cost taxpayers between £55 billion and £81 billion in 2023-24.

One of the problems the roadmap aimed to tackle was data sharing across government departments and other public sector bodies, with the project supposed to set out ways to solve this.

"We had ...