Rural Payments Wales sticks with IBM
The agency handling agricultural subsidies for the Welsh Government has retained IBM as the supplier of its software to support payments. Rural Payments Wales has agreed on a £2.5 million deal with the company to maintain the software as it develops an alternative for a post-Brexit payments system.
The contract award notice says the Welsh Government needed the licence on the proprietary software used, at least until 2023, to achieve the transition. It also needs to access data for audit purposes on the previous five-year funding cycles for infrastructure projects.
It aims over time to move from an on-premise to cloud based solution.
OIX plans Verify consultation for local government data
The Open Identity Exchange (OIX) is taking the next step in its contribution to the programme aimed at spreading the use of the GOV.UK Verify identity assurance platform in local government.
It has called for suppliers to local authorities to take part in its next consultation on how locally collected data can be used with the GOV.UK Verify platform for identity assurance. It is running an event with techUK, to take place in London on the afternoon of Monday 12 February, aimed at understanding how their systems could be used as sources of data capable of helping councils’ customers achieve a Verify online identity. More details are here.
OIX is leading the project on how on how councils and housing associations can contribute data and benefit from the online identity assurance platform.
Cyber lab classroom opens in Cumbria
The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) has co-funded a new facility to provide training for apprentice cyber security professionals. Nine apprentices, who began their training last September, will be able to use a new classroom funded through the NDA’s Cyber Security and Resilience Project. It said this demonstrates its long term commitment to cyber security, with plans to invest £80 million over the next five years.
A second cohort of apprentices is scheduled to use the classroom later this year.
Image from Donnylad, Creative Commons through Wikimedia
