Government CIO appointed but role will be part-time

The government has but to publish its delayed Government ICT Strategy, setting out IT policy across the public sector, nevertheless the Cabinet Office said the government's future ICT agenda will focus on "datacentre, network, software and asset consolidation and the shift towards cloud computing".

In a statement, Maude said Harley had been "superb in his DWP role" and that he would work with him in "radically changing the way government utilises information, communication and digital technologies".

Under Harley, the DWP has focused on reducing its IT bill, with the department managing to cut its total IT spend by £1.5bn over the past five years through its research transformation programme - which is introducing standardised software and hardware, virtualisation technologies and a VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) network.