My name’s Mike Howes-Roberts and I’m the HMRC Programme Director responsible for transforming Government Gateway. Why is transformation important? And what do we mean by transformation? Those are some of the questions I’ll try and answer in this, my first blog post.
Why is transformation important for Government Gateway?
Government Gateway has been a critical piece of UK government infrastructure. It has enabled individuals, businesses and agents to prove their identity to use online government services (user authentication), and it’s fundamental to government transformation as digital take-up continues to increase. To give you an idea of scale, it supports:
- 123 live digital services across government
- 406 million authentications a year
- more than 50 million active accounts.
What’s changing?
Nothing immediately for users, but the current Gateway service is scheduled to come to an end by March 2018.
There is much the current Government Gateway service does well and we’ll be looking to take forward into a new solution. But we also know we can provide a more agile, flexible and secure set of services, and at lower cost.
A big undertaking
Yes, it’s big! But it’s an undertaking we’re prepared for and looking forward to working on. For HMRC, I have to provide a new set of services that will support 53 of the existing 123 services hosted.
In addition, we’re exploring options around other government departments also using this replacement service. This would be restricted to business and agent-facing services only as Cabinet Office requires all other departments to use GOV.UK Verify: the cross-government service for any citizen-facing services where customers need to prove their identity.
I’m working through the detail with my team right now and working closely with other departments. For me that means a genuinely open door and an honest and candid dialogue. We already have a cross-government steering group and that’s one of the main ways I’ll be keeping other departments up-to-speed on progress. I’m keen to meet more colleagues from across government who can play a role in developing this vital project.
If you’re interested in the future of Gateway and following our transformation progress, I’ll be blogging again soon. If you’re a government stakeholder and have questions or want to get more involved please contact my team at governmentgateway.transformation@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk
Source : https://hmrcdigital.blog.gov.uk/2017/02/13/green-light-for-government-gateway-transformation/
