Google Cloud Partners with UK Government to Modernize Public Sector Technology and Upskill Civil Servants

Google Cloud to upskill UK civil servants in latest tech

The UK government has signed a pact with Google Cloud to "upskill" as many as 100,000 civil servants in the latest tech by 2030. In a statement issued to coincide with the Google Cloud Summit London event, the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology (DSIT) said the tech giant's cloud division would help meet the government's target of having 1 in 10 public officials designated "tech experts" to implement civil service reform. "Without deals like this in place, we had hundreds of public sector organizations going it alone in negotiations with big tech companies - leaving them without the market clout they need to get the best deal," technology secretary Peter Kyle said. "When I negotiate with tech companies, I am negotiating on behalf of the British taxpayer," he added, without revealing the specifics of the deal. The Register has asked DSIT for more details. It is likely the services are provided as a "call off" from an existing framework agreement, possibly G-Cloud 14, which the government signed for up to £6.5 billion late last year. In January, the government announced a "blueprint for a modern digital government" and said it would equip civil servants with a new package of AI tools it christened Humphrey. A subsequent report claimed that publicly funded services including the NHS, local councils, and central government are missing out on a potential £45 billion ($55 billion) in productivity savings through old or poor use of technology. The latest government release claims these findings represent a "£45 billion jackpot" from the application of technology in the public sector. It did not say whether these returns would be a lottery. The government also said Google's DeepMind AI subsidiary would work with technical experts in government to support them in "deploying and diffusing" new emerging technologies, driving efficiencies across the public sector, including accelerating scientific discovery. It said Google's "advanced tech" will help shake off decades-old "ball and chain" legacy contracts that leave essential services vulnerable to cyberattack. It was not specific about which legacy contracts it hoped to be free from or how a new cloud services partnership would help, given the long-term nature of such projects. For example, the Home Office is still struggling to migrate away from a legacy platform for an asylum seeker case management system dating back 25 years, even though the replacement system has been in place for some time. The government has also struggled to drive negotiations with cloud providers. In February, Andrew Forzani, chief commercial officer in the Cabinet Office, told Parliament's spending watchdog that if the government wanted to use its spending power to strike better deals with the top cloud providers, individual departments needed to align their requirements. ®

Google Cloud and UK Government reveal major push to end "ball and chain" legacy tech

100,000 civil servants set to receive more training on AI and other tech Google Cloud has announced a major partnership with the UK Government which will help the country rid itself of aging technology systems. Announced at the company's Google Cloud Summit London, the agreement will look to help the UK Government update a host of legacy tech, some of which is decades old, to unlock up to $45 billion in efficiency savings. The partnership will look to modernize commonly-used services from the NHS, along with local council tools, covering everything from bin collection to tax returns. Speaking at the Summit, Technology Secretary Peter Kyle noted the deal will look to provide a major upgrade across public sector services in the UK, where more than one in four systems are estimated to run on legacy tech. This jumps to as high as 70% in some police forces and NHS trusts, sometimes on contracts signed decades ago. He noted how in some areas, the technology being used is decades-old, leaving these organizations at risk of cyberattack or outages, and meaning workers lack the efficiency and productivity gains offered by newer tech. Google Cloud hopes its assistance will help Government bodies ditch these "ball and chain" tech contracts, where providers have often made it too difficult to transfer data to modern systems, with some companies hiking the prices while the taxpayer is locked into contracts. "With more hands-on support, I can't wait to see what our two teams deliver together," Kyle added. Looking forward, Google Cloud will also help the UK Government explore the usage of technology such as quantum computing within the public sector, as well as investigating the development of a single platform to monitor and keep the public sector safe from the latest cybersecurity threats. "Google Cloud is proud to be a strategic partner of the UK Government as they embark on this ambitious digital transformation," noted Tara Brady, President, Google Cloud EMEA. "As the country evolves, the flexibility of Google Cloud will help the government lead the AI era." Google Cloud will also be helping to boost workers within the UK Government, with a new training programme seeing 100,000 civil servants get extra help with AI and other new technology by 2030. Elsewhere, Google Cloud is running a 12 week equity-free accelerator program for Seed to Series AI startups based in the UK, in partnership with Tech London Advocates. This follows benefits announced earlier this year as part of the "Gemini for UK" initiative, with Google Cloud providing up to £280,000 in cloud credits for eligible UK-based AI startups. The company sys that since 2023, over 60% of genAI UK startups are Google Cloud customers, and it is looking to help some of these firms even further, securing spaces for four top UK AI startups on the Europe-wide Google for Startups accelerator, who will be joining 15 top AI startups across Europe to get Google expertise to accelerate growth.