It seems like only yesterday that we were writing about Ian Watmore becoming Permanent Secretary of the Cabinet Office (following Gus O’Donnell’s retirement). Indeed, it has only been a few months - see ‘Watmore becomes a Sir Humphrey’ from October. Yet now we find ourselves reading that he will retire from the Civil Service at the end of June. He will be “returning to his home on the North West of England to focus on non-executive and spousal roles in charity, sport, academic and church activities”. In March he was appointed to the England Rugby 2015 board, which will organise the Rugby World Cup in England in 2015.
We’ve known Ian Watmore a long time in his various roles. He returned to the Civil Service as Chief Operating Officer in July 2010 (see Ian Watmore appointed UK Government COO) after a brief stint as Chief Executive of the Football Association (see Watmore quits FA). His previous Civil Service role began in 2004 when he joined UK Government as the first CIO (he went on to lead the Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit at No. 10 in 2006 and became Permanent Secretary of DIUS in 2007. Prior to that, he spent 24 years at Accenture; not surprising, then, that most of the UK SITS providers we spoke to were pleased to see Watmore, with his understanding of the ICT industry, in an influential position within UK Government.
In the press release, Francis Maude, Minister for the Cabinet Office, praises Watmore for his role in establishing the Efficiency & Reform Group (E&RG) and helping to deliver billions of pounds of cash savings for the taxpayer. He also states “he has assembled an enormously impressive team in ERG who will carry forward this crucial agenda”. The problem though is that the “team” continues to chop and change. Watmore’s departure is just one in a long line.... John Suffolk (UK Government CIO, departed November 2010); Andy Tait (G-Cloud, Data Centre Consolidation & Application Store Deputy Director, departed April 2011); Bill McCluggage (UK Government Deputy CIO, departed end 2011); Joe Harley (UK Government CIO, departed March 2012); and Chris Chant (G-Cloud Programme Director, departed end April 2012). And we can’t help thinking that the repeated ‘changing of the guard’ must make the implementation of the UK Government ICT strategy even harder than it undoubtedly already is.