We talked to 12 permanent secretaries about how to rewire the state – here’s what they said
The path to an integrated digital state must be problem-led, not tech led, says Yatin Mahandru
The UK government has an ambitious vision – a ‘rewiring of the British state’ powered by digital and AI. Leadership is clear that “no person’s substantive time should be spent on a task where digital or AI can do it better“. And while the digitisation of departmental services and the introduction of One Login and the Gov.uk app show real progress, nearly half of central government services still lack a digital pathway. The pace of change must accelerate.
So, how can we move from ambition to delivery? For AI to become the engine of public service, conversation must evolve from what it could do to what government can do now to realise that future. In a recent Global Government Forum report, delivered alongside AWS and authored by Lord Gus O’Donnell, 12 permanent secretaries told us what digital reform will actually take.
Overcoming structural barriers
The challenge links to the wiring of government itself. Departments and budgets are organised vertically, whereas the issues solved by technology are horizontal. The benefits of digital investment cross department lines; better education outcomes reduce criminal justice costs, lower benefits payments and ease NHS demand. Unlocking that value requires funding and governance models to catch up with ambition.
For example, processes like the Spending Review are organised as bilateral Treasury negotiations, which don’t naturally facilitate joint investment in shared infrastructure. Even approval for digital projects that are broadly supported can take time, which risks the technology landscape moving on in the background. Streamlining these steps, while retaining appropriate safeguards, is one of the most important steps government can take.
Centre versus the periphery
The shift of digital functions into the department for science, innovation and technology, with government digital service as the ‘digital centre of government’, provides a stronger foundation for coordination. The next phase is greater clarity on what is best managed centrally – common AI tools, training, shared standards – and at departmental level with central oversight.
Without this, government risks what some permanent secretaries called ‘1,000 flowers blooming’. Fragmented AI pilots leading to duplicated costs and uneven benefits. Centrally disseminated playbooks that departments can adapt for their own use cases demonstrate how to share helpful tools without imposing uniformity.
Instilling data trust inside and out
The National Data Library is optimistically received, and rightly so. The cultural bridge to make it work, such as encouraging departments to share data they remain responsible for, is a greater challenge than any legal barrier. A single cross-government identifier would help address this, giving departments and citizens greater confidence in how data is used.
Because if cultural caution inside government is one side of the coin, public trust is the other. Both stem from unclear data ownership. The national data library can only reach its potential if citizens can see and challenge what is held about them. That requires a digital identity putting them in control – a question of trust, not technology.
Evolving private sector partnerships
Models for public-private partnerships are always evolving. Although talent retention is difficult, civil servants with deeper technical expertise are better placed to work alongside industry partners as equals; evaluating proposals critically, retaining programme ownership and holding suppliers to account.
Outcome-based contracting is one way of driving this evolution, tying supplier remuneration to real-world results and aligning commercial incentives with public value. Embedding vendor expertise within government teams, rather than simply procuring products, can help build the internal capability that makes these partnerships reciprocal. The end goal is a civil service with the internal expertise to deliver digital-first programmes, and a private sector motivated to stay the course.
Political commitment, Spending Review investment and a blueprint for modern digital government mean the window of opportunity to rewire the state is open. But as permanent secretaries acknowledge, the path forward is problem-led, not tech-led. Civil servants and the private sector must navigate complex government structures to ensure the ambition around rewiring the state becomes action.
Yatin Mahandru is vice president, head of public sector and health at tech consultancy, Cognizant