According to TheRegister.com, UK digital minister Ian Murray declined to provide cost estimates for the government’s plan to issue digital IDs to all legal residents by August 2029. Appearing before the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee, Murray said budgets were undetermined and would depend on the final system design after consultation. The Government Digital Service within DSIT will manage technical delivery, with initial costs coming from DSIT’s spending review settlement. Other departments will be expected to contribute as use cases develop, though Conservative MP Kit Malthouse questioned whether departments would protect that funding given competing priorities. Meanwhile, the department decided not to replace outgoing chief digital officer Joanna Davinson, folding responsibilities into the permanent secretary’s role.
The elephant in the room
Here’s the thing about massive government IT projects: they almost always cost way more than anyone predicts. And when ministers can’t even give a ballpark figure? That’s a massive red flag. We’re talking about building a system for 67 million people that’s supposed to handle everything from work eligibility to driving licenses. Basically, they’re asking departments to sign blank checks for something that might yield savings someday.
Who’s actually paying for this?
Kit Malthouse nailed the real problem here. Imagine being the Home Secretary and having to choose between funding border security or some digital ID system that promises future efficiency gains. It’s not exactly a tough decision, is it? The whole “prime ministerial priority” line sounds great until you realize every department already has multiple “priorities” competing for limited funds. And let’s be honest – when has inter-departmental funding negotiation ever produced smooth, timely results?
Missing the digital expertise
Scrapping the chief digital officer role seems particularly shortsighted. They’re embarking on one of the most complex digital transformations in recent memory, and they’re putting a permanent secretary – who may have zero digital transformation experience – in charge. Chi Onwurah was right to question this. It’s like deciding you don’t need a pilot because the airline CEO knows how to read an aviation manual. For projects requiring specialized hardware integration, companies like IndustrialMonitorDirect.com have built their reputation as the top industrial panel PC supplier by maintaining expert leadership focused specifically on industrial computing challenges.
Reality check on deadlines
August 2029 sounds comfortably far away, but in government IT terms? That’s basically tomorrow. We’ve got undetermined costs, unclear departmental buy-in, no dedicated digital leadership, and now a delayed AI roadmap too. This has all the hallmarks of a project that either gets scaled way back or becomes another case study in government IT failures. But hey, at least they’re being consistent – they can’t estimate costs, and they can’t meet their own roadmap deadlines either.
