UK government agrees deal with Google to tackle legacy tech
The UK government has agreed a deal with Google Cloud to phase out old public service contracts and to provide civil servants with the technology skills they need.
The partnership was announced at Google’s Cloud Summit in London by the UK technology secretary Peter Kyle, who said the agreement would give public sector organisations the “market clout” needed to secure the best deal for the taxpayer.
The partnership will involve technical experts from Google DeepMind working with government to remove legacy tech systems, and to incorporate and deploy new technologies such as artificial intelligence across its services. Its goal is to capture £45bn (US$60.8bn) in savings for the taxpayer and improve services for citizens.
“My message to the big technology companies is clear: bring us your best ideas, your best tech, and your best price,” Kyle said on announcing the deal, adding that firms big and small would get “a fair shot” at working with government.
According to the government’s website, a quarter of the systems in central government departments use old technology infrastructure. Outdated systems based on decades old contracts have been found to power up to 70% of some UK police forces and NHS trusts. The prevalence of dated systems increases the risk of power failures and cyberattacks.
The government said Google Cloud’s innovations allow for what it called “secure-by-design” cloud technology, which means cybersecurity will be integrated into the development of its new infrastructure, rather than added once a system has already been created.
A new Google Cloud training programme is planned to run in parallel to the partnership. It aims to upskill tens of thousands of public sector workers in AI and digital by 2030, and is part of prime minister Keir Starmer’s target to have 1 in 10 civil servants working in tech roles by the same date.
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Campaigners critical of the Google deal warned it could embed the interests of Big Tech in the British state.
Imogen Parker, an associate director at the Ada Lovelace Institute, and Global Government Forum contributor, said the partnership had the potential to limit the UK’s future partnership options.
“Deals like this might look like good value for money today, but they risk lock-in tomorrow – limiting our ability to seek alternatives in future,” she said.
Responding to concerns over use of data, the government said that the deal did not permit Google to train AI models on government data, and that data could only be stored outside the UK if legal and other security measures were put in place first.
Separately, on 11 July, the government announced a £740,000 (US$1m) hiring scheme to bring up to 10 AI experts into government. The scheme is backed by Facebook’s parent company, Meta.
The new hires will be expected to help solve problems such as translating large volumes of classified documents, quickening planning applications, and enabling emergency responses to power or internet outages.
Read more: UK developing data tool to track cloud spend across government
Governments around the world look to use purchasing power
The UK government is not the only administration looking to use its buying power at scale. In the US, it was announced in April that Google will offer its Workspace software suite to all federal agencies at a temporary discount of 71% on current pricing until September 30, under an agreement reached with the General Services Administration (GSA).
The GSA has also launched its OneGov Strategy, which aims to modernise the way the federal government purchases goods and services.
Historically, agencies have purchased software through resellers, but this strategy could see government prioritise more direct seller relationships.
With the strategy, the US federal government plans to switch from isolated purchases to what the GSA called a “shared enterprise that powers everything from citizen services to national security”.
The strategy also urges “deeper, direct engagement with [original equipment manufacturers] to ensure more transparent pricing, streamlined acquisition, and improved cybersecurity protections”.
Stephen Ehikian, GSA’s acting administrator, said that the initiative was about “acting as one – aligning to our scale, standards, and security to meet the needs of today’s government while preparing for the future”.
Josh Gruenbaum, commissioner of GSA’s federal acquisition service, said: “We’re creating a more consistent, scalable, and efficient way to buy technology – one that benefits agencies, original equipment manufacturers, and taxpayers alike. We expect this approach to have similar success and benefits across other categories.”
Read more: 10-year health plan for England bets big on digital
About Jack Aldane
Jack is a British journalist, cartoonist and podcaster. He graduated from Heythrop College London in 2009 with a BA in philosophy, before living and working in China for three years as a freelance reporter. After training in financial journalism at City University from 2013 to 2014, Jack worked at Bloomberg and Thomson Reuters before moving into editing magazines on global trade and development finance. Shortly after editing opinion writing for UnHerd, he joined the independent think tank ResPublica, where he led a media campaign to change the health and safety requirements around asbestos in UK public buildings. As host and producer of The Booking Club podcast – a conversation series featuring prominent authors and commentators at their favourite restaurants – Jack continues to engage today’s most distinguished thinkers on the biggest problems pertaining to ideology and power in the 21st century. He joined Global Government Forum as its Senior Staff Writer and Community Co-ordinator in 2021.
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