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UK Cabinet Minister, Rt Hon Matt Hancock, spearheads government blockchain adoption

The Imperial College of London's‎ Centre for Cryptocurrency Research and Engineering and Digital Catapult ran a policy hack day for UK government representatives on the 26th April, in order to help government officials identify possible applications of blockchain technology in public service delivery.

The event was attended by representatives from policy, academia and government, with in-depth discussions around how and when blockchain could be applied in a broad variety of government use cases.

The Imperial College of London’s‎ Centre for Cryptocurrency Research and Engineering and Digital Catapult ran a policy hack day for UK government representatives on the 26th April, in order to help government officials identify possible applications of blockchain technology in public service delivery.

The event was attended by representatives from policy, academia and government, with in-depth discussions around how and when blockchain could be applied in a broad variety of government use cases.

In his keynote address, the Rt Hon Matt Hancock reinforced the importance of digital technologies, not just for digitising existing processes, but also for transforming the manner in which government services are delivered for the benefit of citizens.

Matt Hancock“Bitcoin proved that distributed ledgers can be used to track currency as it is passed from one entity to another. Where else could we use that?”
— – Rt Hon Matt Hancock

In August 2014, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced a major programme of work looking into digital currencies and associated technologies, with a particular focus on whether they should be regulated. The call for information invited views and evidence on the benefits and risks of digital currencies, and received over 120 responses.

In March 2015, the government announced a range of next steps. Develop voluntary standards for consumer protection, by working with British Standards Institution and the digital currency industry, and an intention to apply anti-money laundering regulation to digital currency exchanges in the UK, to support innovation and prevent criminal use.

The announcement also established a new research initiative, bringing together the Research Councils Alan Turing Institute, Digital Catapult, and industry, in order to address the research opportunities and challenges for digital currency technology.

“We’ve already committed to supporting the Alan Turing Institute with £10 million to investigate digital currencies and distributed ledger technologies,” Hancock said in his speech last Tuesday. “ We’re excited to explore any and all possible use cases for blockchains in government.“

“We’re exploring the use of a blockchain to manage the distribution of grants […] Think about the Student Loans Company tracking money all the way from Treasury to a student’s bank account. Or the Department for International Development tracking money all the way to the aid organisation spending the money in country.”
— – Rt Hon Matt Hancock

Liam Maxwell, National Technology Advisor, presented the outcomes of the policy hack session, which covered a broad array of possible applications for Distributed Ledger Technologies in government, from identity management, automating contracts in local authorities, tracking provenance in food supply chains and even a blockchain-based DVLA.

Maxwell was appointed as National Technology Advisor on 18 April 2016, after four years as Chief Technology Officer. Maxwell is now in charge of coordinating various strands of technology policy across the Department for Culture, Media, and Sport (DCMS) and Cabinet Office. He’ll be promoting and supporting digital industry in the UK and internationally.

Stephen Foreshew Cain“It’s all part of the spreading the digital revolution across Whitehall.”
— – Stephen Foreshew-Cain, Executive Director at Government Digital Service

The Government Digital Service (GDS) is a unit of the Her Majesty’s Government‘s Cabinet Office, and tasked with transforming the provision of government digital services. It was formed in April 2011 to implement the ‘Digital by Default’ strategy proposed by a report produced for the Cabinet Office in 2010, ‘Directgov 2010 and beyond: revolution not evolution’.

Chancellor George Osborne almost double the GDS budget last November. The unit has £450 million in funding to spend over the next four years, equal to £112.5 million each year. The previous years budget was £58 million budget. The UK Prime Minister, David Cameron, called the creation of DGS, “one of the great unsung triumphs of the last Parliament.”

“Our job is digital transformation of government,” states the GDS. “We’re a centre of excellence in digital, technology and data, collaborating with departments to help them with their own transformation. We work with them to build platforms, standards, and digital services.”

Government Digital Service“For our first four years or so, the strategy was simple: delivery. We had to deliver, because decades of inaction and inertia in government had shown that starting with piles of paper and years-long IT contracts doesn’t work. Instead, we had to actually change things, and show how that change could be done well.”
— – Government Digital Service

GDS started with the GOV.UK, which has grown to become part of the  national digital infrastructure. The team then brought in the Identity Assurance Programme, which became GOV.UK Verify, and took on what used to be G-Cloud, transforming it into the much larger and more ambitious Digital Marketplace, which has already reached £1bn of sales.

The unit is overseen by the Public Expenditure Executive, which is co-chaired by Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Greg Hands and the Rt Hon Matt Hancock.

Hancock also co-authored the Foreword for Distributed Ledger Technology: beyond block chain, a report released earlier this year by the Government Office for Science. The document sets out the findings of a review exploring how distributed ledger technology can revolutionise services, both in government and the private sector.

“As we have seen open data revolutionise the citizen’s relationship with the state, so may the visibility in these technologies reform our financial markets, supply chains, consumer and business-to-business services, and publicly-held registers.”
— – Rt Hon Matt Hancock & Rt Hon Ed Vaizey

“Distributed ledger technology is already having a profound impact on how private companies manage data and interact with customers and suppliers,” states the report. “If applied within government it could reduce costs, increase transparency, improve citizens’ financial inclusion and promote innovation and economic growth.”

A range of governmental applications are provided by the authors, from protecting critical infrastructure, pensions, international aid systems, and European Value Added Tax (VAT).

Mark Walport“An important challenge for this new set of technologies is communication of its significance to policymakers and to the public.“
— – Mark Walport, Chief Scientific Adviser to HM Government


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