Brexit could be UK’s ‘govtech’ moment

LONDON — We live our lives digitally. More than ever, we busy, sell transact, tell people where we are, what we’ve seen, what we’re thinking — even what we’ve had for breakfast — online. But the technological breakthroughs that have radically changed our lives have been harnessed by the marketing industry far more effectively than they have in the sector where they can have the greatest impact: government.

As Britain prepares to leave the European Union, we need to embrace technology and innovation as being at the heart of our national purpose. From the creative industries to advanced manufacturing, data and digital products are leading the way. We need to use these same tools to reboot our institutions of state and public services. After all, it will have to reimagine how many of its public services are run — from how to subsidize farmers outside of the EU’s common agricultural policy to how to oversee customs after it’s left the EU’s Customs Union.

That’s why Brexit provides the perfect moment to commit to a digital transformation. The U.K. has the potential to become the global center for “govtech” — technology that transforms government services — and capture a £400 billion global market.

We already have a head start: renewing patents, applying for student loans, making civil claims and applying for lasting power of attorney can all be done online in the U.K. The government’s digital mandarinate have been hard at work changing the way the government stores information, engages with citizens and spends money. And thanks to a new online marketplace for government known as the G-Cloud, the government throws much less of its budget at large IT firms but brings in the latest technology through smaller firms.

Britain is not alone in its efforts to update public services for citizens.

In Estonia, citizens can complete just about every municipal or state service online and in a matter of minutes. They can formally register a company and start trading within 18 minutes. Their educational record, medical record, employment history and traffic offenses are all at their fingertips. And since the Baltic state installed its e-Cabinet, it has massively cut down the length of weekly meetings — from between four and five hours to just 30 minutes — as well as the amount of paper it once wasted in printing documents every week.

In truth, the vast majority of what government does, including some of the most IT-savvy, is really no different than it was 50 years ago.

Thousands of miles away, Rwandan minister Jean Philbert Nsengimana is laying the groundwork to bring the poverty-struck country into the digital age by making its economy entirely cashless. The transition will make it easier for citizens to access financial services like bank accounts, save for the future, build assets or get credit. The government, development organizations and companies will also have a more cost-effective, efficient, transparent and safer means of disbursing and collecting payments.

Meanwhile, on a quiet street in northeast Oslo, the Norwegian State Education Loan Fund LÃ¥nekassen has lent and granted money to students since 1947. Since it automated its services, what used to used to take hundreds of hours, hundreds of staff and countless pieces of paper is now all done with a few clicks.

A woman holds a Save our NHS placard during the EU referendum campaign in 2016 | Oli Scarf/AFP via Getty Images

Governments’ efforts to take advantage of new digital tools to better serve their citizens is an important trend that promises to change the nature of power as well as the role and size of the state. But this transformation is in its very early stages. In truth, the vast majority of what government does, including some of the most IT-savvy, is really no different than it was 50 years ago.

When you fall ill, why can’t you be diagnosed at home via Facetime or Skype? If you’re an at-risk patient, why not have your vital signs monitored remotely and the information automatically shared with a medical professional who can make appropriate recommendations in real time? Doctors and nurses would still need to see patients, of course; we’re not robots, and we still thrive on human interaction. But technology can reduce, even if it cannot entirely replace, labor- and cost-intensive processes in our public services. In the process, it helps doctors be better doctors by allowing them more time to treat patients rather than fill out paperwork.

Small innovations like these foreshadow a big promise: transforming the relationship between a government and its citizens.

In 2016, the Afghan state began paying its police officers via credits on their mobile phones. For an Afghan officer whose salary had, for years, been skimmed by layers of thieving command as it passed through countless hands from Kabul, the change effectively meant receiving a 30 percent salary increase. Meanwhile, the state’s costs dropped by 10 percent.

And you don’t have to go all the way to Afghanistan to see how technology can improve the relationship between a government and its citizens. At a time when citizens across the board are disillusioned in what government can do for them — and as populist movements across Europe call for an end to the status quo — these kinds of digital transformations can restore trust and support among citizens.

By calling on the tech community, the government came up with solutions it otherwise would never have considered.

When, in the winter of 2013-2014, parts of the Somerset Levels — low-lying plains in southwestern England — were flooded, residents were cut off from each other as their villages became islands. Then, a group of 200 hackers convened by then Prime Minister David Cameron stepped in to reassure and help those affected.

By calling on the tech community, the government came up with solutions it otherwise would never have considered, including a tool by which residents could instantly report damaged flood fences via an application on their smartphone. When Cameron visited one of the flood-hit villages, a local man told him how relieved he had been to receive a text message instructing him where he could find free sandbags to fortify his house against the floodwaters. Before then, he hadn’t heard from anyone.

Nurses in the accident and emergency dept of Selly Oak Hospital in Birmingham | Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

The U.K. is poised to reap the rewards of digitally savvy government. We already have a large market in public services, and devolution to cities like Manchester and London has created opportunities to apply new technologies to solve municipal problems like social care, housing allocation, parking management and street repairs. Councils in Bristol, Leeds and London are already pushing the boundaries, using predictive analytics to measure traffic and air quality, for example.

Previous efforts have helped put the U.K. at the center of the world’s digital economy. We have helped young companies — such as CityMapper — leverage new publicly available data and created a conducive environment for startups like Deliveroo and TransferWise to emerge.

We must build on these successes with every bit, bot and byte we have. There is an extraordinary opportunity for the U.K. to lead once again. We must seize it.

Daniel Korski was deputy head of the policy unit at No 10 Downing Street and is the founder and CEO of Public, a new venture that helps technology startups transform public services.