Fancy a £130k director of technology role with the UK's Ministry of Justice? All you need to do is 'fix the basics'

The UK's Ministry of Justice is hiring a director of technology, offering £130,000 plus a season ticket loan for whoever wins the chance to "fix the basics" of Britain's disintegrating, delay-ridden, semi-digitised justice system. "You will be responsible for delivery of technology services that meet the changing needs of all …

[Efer Brick]

Fantastic opportunity for someone

To funnel cash to their corporate pals, BoJo style.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Fantastic opportunity for someone

oh, they WOULDN'T!?

[alain williams]

First task

Bring back the IT systems outsourced to India.

[Mr Dogshit]

I might apply for this.

After all, I have the necessary hashtags.

[smudge]

Why a season ticket?

Travel to London is required "on an occasional basis", hence the season ticket loan

If it's only "occasional", why do they need a season ticket?

That's my money that they are wasting!

[0laf]

This is a poisoned chalis for anyone that actually wants to do the job. Good if you want to get it on your CV and have the skills to jump ship before everything tanks

[Anonymous Coward]

That doesn't seem an outrageous salary for the role

Jennifer Arcuri got more than that out of public funds for some in-person technology lessons.

(All thoroughly investigated. All found to be above-board. All a perfectly legitimate use of public money.)

[Julian 8]

Why not wheel Dildo "Queen of Carnage" Harding in ? Seems right up her street, IT, Government, Cronyism

[Fruit and Nutcase]

"Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment."

When was the last time a chumocrat do an assessment and went in front of a selection panel?

[Eclectic Man]

Secure, but available to everyone?

It will have to be made very clear who is the actual customer (i.e., the person who actually states the requirements and pays the invoices), as opposed to all the various different users.

You have to be very careful how you treat the various PCUs (Professional Court Users). Lawyers, barristers etc. representing clients get access to the relevant court files, but Judges, get 'whatever they want'. You have to provide access to court documents somehow to people representing themselves, over secure WiFi in the court building, whilst at the same time preventing anyone else from using the free WiFi for anything else. And then there are the central systems.

The lucky appointee will have to balance many customers' interests, wants and desires, but note that "customers" is an anagram of "curse most". Now I am not saying that judges are a law unto themselves, but they do not, as a whole, appear to enjoy being told "no, you cannot have that", or even asked "why do you need that?"

I do not envy whoever takes this on, and £130k per year does not seem very much for anyone who actually has the necessary talents to get it done well. However, Bill Gates is no longer running MicroSoft, so maybe he can be persuaded? ;o)

[Cederic]

Re: Secure, but available to everyone?

None of the challenges you've cited are terribly difficult.

It's just basic data control and access, and user management. Judges are still users, and you can still balance data protection with meeting their needs and satisfying their (legal) wants.

[hottuberrol]

That salary is not going to attract anyone with the necessary technical skills, the appetite to fix an IT mess that dates back over a decade, and the ability to put up with this government's BS - and inevitably having your name publicly smeared as the scapegoat for 10 years of incompetent s**tf*ckery.

[Pascal Monett]

"Court digitisation has gone poorly in the UK"

Could someone please point me to a Government IT project that has not gone poorly in the UK ?

Just one ?

Because I can't remember ever hearing about one.

Emergency services communications ? The old one was going to be cut off and the new one wasn't in place.

NHS ? Please.

No, somebody please tell me that something has gone well in UK Goverment IT services.

Oh, the lifts are working ? Well that's something, I guess.

[boblongii]

Re: "Court digitisation has gone poorly in the UK"

Part of the problem is scale. A fiend in the MoD once asked me why I was sure the NHS project (whichever one it was at the time) would fail and I said, "Because it would be the biggest successful IT project ever completed anywhere in the world by anyone in the whole history of IT if it did work. Does that sound likely?"

Don't kid yourself that the private sector has a long list of successful IT projects on this scale because it ain't so; quite the opposite.

Courts and NHS both have enormously wide parameters about what sort of documents they have to be able to handle and the skills of the people handling them - which includes bods off the street in both cases.

It's a bloody hard task, not helped by the fact that the Govt puts no effort into finding a decent partner but always turns to crooks like KPMG and the other shitbags of multinational consultancy. But even so, there just are not many (if any) companies capable of implementing this stuff.

[Phil O'Sophical]

Re: "Court digitisation has gone poorly in the UK"

Could someone please point me to a Government IT project that has not gone poorly in the UK ?

Why restrict us to the UK? Are there many such projects, anywhere?

[Eclectic Man]

Re: "Court digitisation has gone poorly in the UK"

Pascal Monett> "Could someone please point me to a Government IT project that has not gone poorly in the UK ?"

Of course not, they are all classified "TOP SECRET". If there were known to be competent systems integrators who delivered IT systems on time, to budget which actually met the well-researched and clearly defined specifications, then HMG would never be able to give lucrative contracts to their failing friends again. Use your common sense.

As for the lifts, I used the ones in Empress State Building near Earl's Court. Everyone tried to avoid lift number 6 because it was clearly there on holiday from the future of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation, would go up or down as it chose and would frequently NOT OPEN THE DOOR when it stopped at the floor of its choice, even though my name is not Dave and I wasn't conspiring against it. (But I'm over that now and bear it no ill will.)

[$till$kint]

Re: "Court digitisation has gone poorly in the UK"

I was one of the lucky ones to NOT get caught in that lift during my tenure there. Mind you, that was because I could usually be found having meetings in The Atlas.

[Mozzie]

Re: "Court digitisation has gone poorly in the UK"

"Could someone please point me to a Government IT project that has not gone poorly in the UK ?"

Bletchley Park?

That's my one, don't ask for another.

[Anonymous Coward]

services to be fast, simple, and supported by commodity cloud services

...drawing on previous, successful implementation of the above across all gov platforms :D

[Fred Dibnah]

I'd advise anyone considering applying to read the excellent, eye-opening, and shocking 'The Secret Barrister' first.

[DarkwavePunk]

Blimey, time to dust off the CV?

I've got an AWS account. There are myriad services there that I've poked with a stick and not completely broken (okay it's possible there are more that I have). Spending money frivolously is also a core talent of mine. I also like to put all my eggs in one basket as they're easier to find when you're shitfaced drunk. Anyway, hiding eggs all over the place is the sign of an eggoholic.

Now where was I? Oh right, application. "Name". Right, a bit too complicated for me I'm afraid.

*Hic*

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Blimey, time to dust off the CV?

A bit too complicated? Even E.L. Wisty could get 75% on that job application!

[Fruit and Nutcase]

Contempt of Court

Given that some of end users are Judges, make it compulsory that whoever is in charge has to answer to a sitting Judge. The prospect of spending some time down in the cells for Contempt of Court for not being straight with the Judge should help the delivery