Defra admits Windows 10 refresh letter to MPs was wrong – machines were already on Windows 11

The UK's Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) has confirmed its £312 million Windows 10 laptop refresh was, in fact, followed by a Windows 11 upgrade after an earlier letter to Parliament misstated the department's operating system timeline. leaves, says goodbye to colleagues Mexit, not Brexit, is the new …

[DarkwavePunk]

Hah!

I used to know someone who worked at DEFRA. This doesn't surprise me. The daily tales of shambolic process woes were almost comical.

[Taliesinawen]

Re: Hah!

If you want to get well paid for sitting in a warm room and doing no useful work then get a job with the government. For a little exercise, print something out, walk to the printer then mail it back to yourself /s

[Si 1]

Would love to know what applications they're running to still need Windows. If all they're doing is email/Word/Excel/Powerpoint/Facebook there's no excuse not to move to open source.

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, yeah - "Just Use Linux".

Let's ignore the likelihood of plugins for finance, CRM, etc which only work with MS Office, and the massive issues of MDM and user training, both of which would require large amounts of time and money.

And an organisation like Defra won't be just using basic office programs - they will have all sorts of obscure software in use.

[gryphon]

I presume with all the different areas that are covered by the various sub-organisations within Defra that there are dozens of apps just for interacting with farmers let alone the water companies, food safety etc.

If they are all browser based then of course the client should really be able to be anything but it can't be taken as read.

[HellDiverUK]

First off, .gov.uk just doesn't just use the Office suite. Most of the daily work is done on various home-brew applications and even more legacy stuff that's been out there before Linux was a thing.

Secondly, .gov.uk relies on mostly third party support for those applications, which won't even tender for a contract if it isn't MS Office or the likes. First line support is in-house, but they'd all need retrained, which isn't going to happen becuase budgets and staff shortages.

Thirdly, the Karens, Karls and Jemimas on the .gov.uk world who have been sitting at a desk for 20 years doing the same thing with the same software wouldn't have a clue what to do. I mean, I've seen an AO with 30 years experience totally lose it because IT came in and changed the resolution of her screen - she was using a 24" monitor at 1024x768. When the tech changed it to the proper 1920x1080 she literally couldn't find her icons or know how to navigate the systems she'd be using for 3 decades.

Seriously, there's a snowball's chance that .gov.uk could move to Linux on the desktop.

[herman]

Login

So now, nobody can log in due to a missing password box?

[Anonymous Coward]

I suppose that they will get audited for this phenomenal waste of taxpayer money is unlikely.

[IGotOut]

What waste of money? Getting rid of out of support software to in support software?

Upgrading to comply with multiple legislation?

Keeping the systems running?

[CorwinX]

Problem is...

Senior civil servants tend to be promoted according to their tongue skills as related to anal orifices.

Most of them, tech-wise, need to call tech support to remind them how to switch on their PC.

Note I said "senior" - no way disparaging *actual* civil servants just being what the words describe every day,

[MrGreen]

Help Me Understand

So £312 million to upgrade 31,500 devices works out at £9,904 per device?

Is this correct?

[ComicalEngineer]

Re: Help Me Understand

You have to understand that DEFRA will have first had numerous meetings with tea and biscuits to decide on whether to upgrade.

Then there will be the committee who writes the Request For Information from potential suppliers.

Then the suppliers will get a multi-page Pre-Qualification Questionnaire (usually over 150 questions) including bribery and corruption procedures, modern slavery, compliance with ISO 9001 / 14001, insurance details, colour of secretary's underwear [ok I made the last one up].

Any smaller suppliers will be thrown under a bus at this stage.

Once the PQQ has been returned and analysed [by another committee] a Request For Quotation [RFQ] will be sent out.

This will again be written by a committee even though it's a "one size fits all" document.

The RFQ will inevitably contain specifications which are either not relevant or else will require customisation of an otherwise standard product.

The RFQ will be sent out but there will inevitably be clarification questions - which will be submitted on an Excel spreadsheet [ask me how I know this!]

The Q&A session may take 2-3 months depending on replies as each question will have to be answered by the steering committee.

Tenders will then be received. These may well be in the order of 200-300 pages.

All tender submissions will go to the committee for review, after which further questions may go out to the potential suppliers.

That's another 6 - 8 weeks.

Then a final review after which the tenders will be marked out of 10 for content, compliance with the purchasing department requirements, cost and star quality.

In a previous role I went through this rigmarole to supply works to another government agency, at which point thy decided to split the work up and re-tender.