The Conservative Party has entered the recent debate on the draft UK government ICT strategy. A new site has been launched, entitled “Make IT Better: Help us improve the Government’s tech strategy“.

The site includes a leaked copy of the current draft strategy and invites critiques as well as ideas on how to do things better. We know there is no shortage of bright people with insightful ideas out there who will be able to contribute.

We first picked up rumours late last week that a major political party was going to enter the debate. It’s good to see that IT is so high on the radar – but perhaps not so surprising given that up to £21bn per annum is expended on public sector IT (more than that expended on the entire UK agriculture, forestry and fishing industries combined).

The current draft appears both fragmentary (there is no whole of government vision or strategy for IT, with various departments and agencies picking away in a haphazard fashion) and lacking in ambition: it doesn’t foresee many savings before 2020, for example. Indeed, it makes barely any mention of the current economic and social climate, once again confirming the view that IT in Whitehall has become isolated from the policymaking and business mainstream. It also seems very dated in its understanding of where IT is, how it relates to public services and the reality of what is now possible with utility computing.

CTPR is currently in discussion with Ideal Government to see what we can do with the joint competition we recently announced. There is no shortage of work to be done here on helping provide a vision and comprehensive strategy for UK public sector IT and we’re keen to add value where we can.

So watch this space! And in the meantime, drop along to the new site and have your say.