CIO Forum: Public sector failing at innovation

The UK public sector is failing to innovate while progress in the private sector is putting it to shame, according to a panel of influential IT decision makers.

Speakers and delegates at the silicon.com CIO Forum in London voted overwhelmingly in favour of the private sector when asked where innovation is greatest and many had little time for suggestions the public sector is pulling its weight.

Ian Taylor, MP and Conservative spokesman for IT, said: "Government acts as a catalyst for innovation. It stimulates thought processes that the private sector may be slow to pick up on."

But Jonathan Steel, CEO of the Bathwick Group, argued "just because the government paves the way for others does not make it innovative".

"Innovation can mean many things," said Steel. "It can mean making the impossible happen but I think what the public sector does is it takes what happens and makes it impossible."

Luke Mellors, CIO of the Dorchester, agreed that "stimulating other people to innovate does not make you innovative", and went as far as to suggest the public sector may even be guilty of stealing glory on the back of private sector innovation.

He then really put the boot in, adding: "If it comes to pass that people think the public sector is seen as more innovative I think it will only be because they have stifled the private sector with regulation."

The panel was talking during the CIO Jury live event - a debate session during which cases were put for the prosecution and defence of public sector innovation.

The outcome of a vote among a panel of CIOs was a unanimous vote of no-confidence in public sector innovation, despite arguments from the Tory Taylor who said if it hadn't been for the innovation of the government in selling radio spectrum, progress in UK technology would have slowed considerably.

But even a colleague from the public sector couldn't endorse that line of argument.

Richard Steel, head of ICT at the London Borough of Newham, said: "Ripping off the telcos for 3G licences is arguably an innovation but whether it's a good innovation is another thing."

Steel added: "£23bn for selling something which is free - like the spectrum... for the taxpayer that was innovation."

Claire Hamon, business information systems director for the Crown Prosecution Service, also singled out government procurement policy as a factor in stifling rather than promoting UK innovation, with large vendors seemingly more likely to get the nod.

"It makes it difficult for smaller companies to compete," said Hamon.

And size does matter it would seem.

Steel concluded that the public sector is hampered by its "monolithic nature" which makes fleet-of-foot innovation impossible.