We all know that reviews are a necessary part of Government. Policy makers need the facts in front of them in order to make objective decisions. That can’t be disputed. I even did my own for them recently.

However, the sheer volume of reviews launched by Government is certainly a trend that commentators have latched onto. I have to say the relevant bandwagon has now hit me as well. Its as if they are the panacea for every issue, every strategy and every crisis that confronts the Government. They even tried to avert a defeat in the Commons yesterday over the Ghurkas with, you guessed it, offering a review. But this was not just to be any old review. This was to be a review that concluded by August. I don’t know how many MP’s that shifted into the ‘right’ division lobby.

So it was with some trepidation that I opened the Government’s latest review on support for industry last week: New Industry, New Jobs. All well and good I thought, apart from the fact that this appeared to be a review covering virtually the same territory that the recent Manufacturing Strategy covered in July 2008. Driven through by Baroness Vadera, that particular review was seen by many as a rare example of a review that did actually have some firm proposals for action. The latest version of BERR’s ‘strategic vision’ for UK industry and its development decidedly was not.

In fact, it seemed to be me to be a symptom of that other rapidly spreading condition- Reviewitis. Not quite as deadly as Swine Flu, but equally as perplexing. For what we are with faced with as a strategy for pulling UK industry out of recession? A review that announces, or in some cases reannouces, further reviews.

While reading its basic conclusions, I was pleased to see advanced manufacturing, in particular plastic electronics, get a heavy namecheck. Likewise the reference to Digital Britain, and the crucial role it has to play in rolling out improved digital networks. At the same time, it was telling for me that no less than four out of the five major conclusions announced plans for ‘further assessment’ or made statements to the effect that future Government policy would be based on, you guessed it, an ongoing or upcoming review. In fact the only new action that I could determine that the report actually announced was- a new review into industrial opportunities in an ageing society.

This week, I will be moving on to the latest missive from BERR to hit my inbox: A Consultation on Effective Consultation. . It doesn’t bode well for my current views on these mechanisms…

I was at the launch event of ‘The UK’s Digital Road to Recovery’ yesterday, a joint report from the LSE and Washington based Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) which assesses the employment benefits of investment in three key areas of the UK’s digital infrastructure. The headline figure from the report suggests that £15 billion of investment in broadband, smart grid and intelligent transport systems could result in 700,000 jobs retained or created in the UK.

There was a lively debate with the delegates over the 700,000 figure, with some in the audience querying the validity of the job growth claims, and others questioning the availability of a £15 billion stimulus in the current climate. (more…)

First, following up from my last blog entry where I was a little sceptical towards what the budget would bring in terms of greenness. Apparently, this budget is the ‘world’s first carbon budget’ that aims to ‘provide businesses with the certainty they need to justify investment in low carbon technologies and help create hundreds of thousands of high-value jobs’ with ‘over £1.4 billion of extra targeted support in the low-carbon sector.’ However, some say that this supposedly green budget is nothing more than a ‘whitewash’. And although the rest of the budget was highly criticised all over the media world, the ICT industry saw some benefits as identified by Intellect.

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Smart Grids really are the talk of the town. Yesterday, at Ofgem’s ‘Powering the Energy debate’,
they were referenced throughout, not least as a crucial mechanism to aid UK Plc’s transmission to a low-carbon economy and also secure the security of supply.

Then, today, a new report published by the London School of Economics and Political Science and the Information Technology and Innovation Fund, makes the case for £5bn worth of investment in smart grid technology as part of the ‘UK’s Digital Road to Recovery.’ To quote the report, the smart grid is ‘intended to be a revolutionary network, much like the Internet, that will deliver power more efficiently and more reliably than our existing grid.’

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Christine Connelly, the new(ish) CIO for Health gave her first public appearance at HC2009 this morning. Hotly anticipated to make a big announcement, she didn’t disappoint. Unveiling the government’s strategy for delivering the National Programme for IT (NPfIT) in the south of England following Fujitsu’s withdrawal, Connelly announced the opening up of the market with plans for 30 acute sites are to run competitions based on the Additional Supply Capability and Capacity(ASCC) – a framework agreement set up in 2007. The process is expected to last nine months, with contracts awarded for four years (making them coterminous with the existing BT/CSC contracts). This is very welcome news to members who successfully bid for a place on the catalogue but began wondering whether it was ever going to deliver any real business.

Other encouraging news came in the guise of plans to introduce new toolkits by March 2010 that will give trusts more control over local configuration of systems. Cerner and Lorenzo will create the foundations upon which trusts can innovate, in much the same way that new Facebook and iPhone applications are based on standard technology. The message was clear – “programmes of development will not be centrally dictated” – but technical standards and data standards are sure to pose some tricky questions.

Last but not least, Connelly is meeting David Behan, the Director General of Social Care at the Department of Health next week. Behan was a welcome guest at Intellect earlier this month and news that he is in discussions with Connelly about the true potential for integrating health and social care services is heartening. They will be looking at how far integration has come and how new benefits for patients can be created across all care settings, setting out the major milestones for the next 12 months.

So, despite some rather gloomy weather up here there is certainly quite a buzz. More soon.

As expected there were no big giveaways from Alistair Darling in this year’s budget. Whilst it was nowhere near as drastic as the recent second Irish budget in which taxes were hiked and budgets were slashed, the Chancellor gave a keen sense that the UK is battening down the hatches to weather the economic storm. But it was not all doom and gloom, and indeed there were plenty of positive points for the technology industry to take. So was this the first ‘Technology Budget’? (more…)

This afternoon’s Budget saw the Chancellor announce that he would shortly be publishing a paper with his ‘recommendations for wide-ranging reform’ of financial regulation. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the banks are in the firing line: the paper will put forward ideas to improve regulation of capital and liquidity, and also to reform their corporate governance and remuneration.

However, I hope that the Chancellor has spoken to his colleagues in the FSA. Since 1 January 2009, at the time of writing, there have been 13 FSA consultations, covering subjects like reforming remuneration practices and strengthening liquidity standards.

Regulation may be a necessary evil but there is a real danger of over-regulation within financial services. No doubt steps must be taken to prevent the financial calamities that we have seen in recent months but what is needed is a better quality of regulation, not higher quantities of it. I look forward to reading the Chancellor’s paper.

A colleague of mine sent me a story that, if it turns out to be the harsh truth, can have a significant impact on the technology industry’s role in fighting climate change. According to research analyst Gartner, “2009 will be a gap year for green projects lacking a short-term cost-cutting and efficiency focus.” Signs of a weakened interest in green IT were visible as early as last year when Green IT was moved from first (in 2008) to tenth (for 2009) place in Gartner’s top 10 strategic technologies list.

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I was interested to see the new look that www.ask.com has given their ‘butler’ Jeeves, who returned to the search engine world today after a three-year absence (apparently he was taking part in a ‘quest for knowledge’). It’s quite a change than the formal dress he used to step out in before his vacation. However, given that (according to Wikipeida) ‘today a butler is more likely to wear a business suit or business casual clothing and appear in uniform only on special occasions’, it looks like ask.com are sartorially spot-on.

On a more serious note though, Ask.com have been busy. The FT reported this morning of the improvements that the search engine has made to its service, providing more relevant answers in a faster time. However, given that Google currently has over 75 per cent of the search market and ask.com has two per cent, I wish Jeeves all the best in searching out the answers as to how to make up this deficit!

If Lord Carter fixed all the points in the Digital Britain report, would this make the UK fit for purpose to compete in a global digital economy? This was perhaps one of the more forward looking points raised at today’s Digital Britain summit, where it was a who’s who of policy makers on the issue. But it was our very own Director General, John Higgins, speaking on a panel with Lord Carter, who ventured to say that this would not be the finish line for the UK.

While the work of Digital Britain is an ambitious, welcome and vital step, it is only the first rung in the ladder. Providing the right digital infrastructure and competitive environment will enable the public and private sectors to leverage the benefits to create growth, jobs and new services. But there needs to be more.

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