[2] It was formed in April 2011 by David Cameron's Conservative government to implement the "Digital by Default" strategy proposed by a report produced for the Cabinet Office in 2010 called Directgov 2010 and beyond: revolution not evolution.
[3] As of July 2024,[update] the interim CEO is Christine Bellamy, who previously led digital transformation and delivery at the BBC and had been managing director at Johnston Media.
From 1 April 2011 Directgov became part of the Government Digital Service, along with the BusinessLink website aimed at business users.
[8] The strategy was proposed in a report called "Directgov 2010 and beyond: revolution not evolution" prepared by Martha Lane Fox, the founder of lastminute.com.
In an interview, Francis Maude, minister with responsibility for GDS spoke about "powerful oligopolies" and the reliance on a single supplier as a cause of high-profile failures in public sector IT, such as NHS Connecting for Health.
[16][17] GDS has since mid 2013 promoted the concept of government as a platform,[18] an idea first set out by Tim O'Reilly in 2009 in an article in Forbes.
[26] GOV.UK Verify is intended to act as a single sign on framework for government services like filing taxes or checking driving license information.