Re: small proportion of permanent secretarieshave first-hand experience of digital business change
"...too few senior government officials armed with the experience and skills to run such schemes."
Here's a suggestion.
Instead of filling up all of the new-fangled "Non-executive directors" with friends of Johnson and the Tory party, why not draft in a few experienced IT professionals to try and bludgeon the senior Civil Servants into understanding that an IT project does not just get there by uttering the words "Let it be"?
"Non-executive directors" or NEDS. People who have lived in Scotland will know how well regarded they are.