Coalition Government yet to decide on IT & Technology Issues

We have a new Coalition Government headed up by David Cameron, however it remains unclear how this will affect the IT industry.

We know that planned cuts in public sector IT spending are likely, along with the cancellation of several key government IT projects, and there is little doubt that outsourcing and off shoring will play a pivotal role in reducing the budget.

Top of the Conservatives Tech Manifesto throughout the election was their commitment to freeze major new IT spending, cap projects at £100million and to make changes in government procurement by opening the market to smaller suppliers, whilst The Liberal Democrats promised the creation of 100,000 green jobs, including technology, if they had won the election outright and an improvement in government IT procurement and greater use of cloud computing and open-source software.

It appears that both parties are agreed that centralised NHS patient records need to be scrapped under the £12.7 billion (US$18.9 billion) National Programme for IT, alongside the cancellation of the entire £5 billion ID card scheme, but biometric passports will remain.

There will be strong resistance to UK work cuts via offshoring or cancellation of projects, the latter of which would not only incur heavy penalties from suppliers but no doubt also the start of some lengthy legal battles.

It is inevitable that the Tory’s are going to be tough to reduce the budget deficit with cuts such as £4 billion from public sector IT and £3 billion from contract renegotiation already suggested.

The Digital Economy Bill is still unresolved with the Conservatives supporting it and Lib Dems opposing it. Lack of data privacy in the UK is also likely to be considered by our new government.

The Conservatives and Lib Dems have released a document setting out the agreements reached between the two parties on a range of issues, all though there is little mention on IT and Technology at this stage.

Coalition Agreement so far -http://www.conservatives.com/News/News_stories/2010/05/Coalition_Agreement_published.aspx

It has been announced today that an Emergency budget will be held on Tuesday 22nd June; hopefully we will know more after this date.