The government estimates that one in four public sector systems run on legacy tech, rising to 70% in some police forces and NHS Trusts.
A new report by think tank Re:State, ‘From legacy to leadership: upgrading the digital State’ explores how government should tackle the challenge of fixing legacy IT, and the step changes in strategy, funding and procurement which are long overdue. It advocates for alternative approaches and a different strategic approach, setting out seven ideas for tackling the problem of legacy IT.
Re:State argues that much of the potential of digital technology to transform the way the State operates has been left on the table, by governments of all parties who have not invested in software in a way that enables the government’s “technology stack” to keep pace with the modern world. “Public services are held back from radical transformation by a deadweight of legacy IT – systems which are outdated, on the way to being obsolete, and inevitably not part of the future.”
As an example, the paper details a major power outage at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust in July 2022, which saw two major data centres fail as a result of a heatwave, causing widespread disruption across the Trust’s hospitals and community services. In the case study, Re:State quotes the Trust identified 371 legacy systems, of which only a limited number of people had detailed knowledge, which hampered the process of restoring key systems. Ultimately, the Critical Site Incident was not stood down until weeks after the incident. The financial consequences were also significant, with around £1.4bn in unplanned technology spending linked to recovery and resilience measures.
“The case is an example of how legacy IT is not only a problem of outdated infrastructure or poor efficiency, but it is also a live operational risk that can rapidly become a public service crisis.
Re:State argues that legacy IT must be treated as a whole-system leadership problem, requiring taking ownership of the challenge and exposing the risks of legacy systems.
Seven ideas to tackle legacy tech
• Establish a dedicated Digital Modernisation Taskforce in the digital centre of government with a mandate to reduce systemic legacy risk and embed prevention
• Introduce mandatory Technology Impact Assessments for major policy and spending decisions with technological implications
• Make legacy IT risk an explicit part of Accounting Officer responsibilities and public reporting
• Accelerate simpler digital spending pilots and shift digital funding from a time-limited to a service-based model
• Adopt a central match funding model to accelerate departmental legacy IT remediation while preserving local responsibility
• The Taskforce should establish clear guidance on the commercial best practice for managing suppliers involved in legacy IT and intervene to apply it across high-risk contracts
• The Taskforce should develop a programme of New Commercial Approaches to legacy IT across central government.
