The UK government must end its boycott of Britain’s new policies, says Megaslice

The UK government must reform its approach to public sector procurement if it is serious about supporting British innovation, according to Justin Megawarne, managing partner at Megaslice, who accused Whitehall of hiding behind rigid structures and “reckless scoring schemes”.

Megawarne’s comments follow the decision to award Fujitsu a place in the government’s £984 million scheme, despite the company’s key role in developing and supporting the Post Office Horizon IT system. The scheme led to the wrongful prosecution of 736 postmasters across the UK and has become one of the worst miscarriages of justice in modern British history.

Fujitsu had previously written to the government pledging not to bid for new public contracts until a public inquiry into the Horizon scandal was completed. Its inclusion in the framework has also sparked debate about how the government selects suppliers – and whether it is doing enough to support genuine domestic innovation.

“If an organization has wronged its customers to the extent that it has become a disgrace to the country and approved its own television show, it is time for the government to spend its money elsewhere,” said Megawarne.

“With so much public money wasted on technology that is not fit for purpose, and in this case people who have been criminalized by fraud, the budget for real innovation continues to shrink.

Megawarne argues that government procurement processes are fundamentally flawed, relying too heavily on performance evaluation tools that struggle to identify true value.

“Current methods of adopting new technologies are complex and painfully slow,” he said. “Score sheets don’t mean anything new. If the government worked with businesses instead of keeping them at bay, we could save millions of pounds currently being wasted on the wrong solutions.”

Instead of relying on government employees to test complex and novel technologies, Megawarne believes that the government should enlist private industry leaders with proven innovation credentials.

“Let the experts judge the ideas using their experience and judgment, not a spreadsheet,” he said. “Yes, some will say that sounds unfair, but it greatly increases the chances of finding a truly game-changing solution. You just need to make sure those experts don’t have a conflict of interest.”

He added that purchasing decisions are often driven by prices rather than results. “Spending less money on the wrong solution doesn’t save money at all. Much of what has been invested so far has failed to solve the day-to-day problems that government departments face.”

Megawarne also criticized what he saw as the government’s automatic preference for large, established providers, regardless of past performance.

“The mentality still stands, ‘no one ever got fired for buying IBM’,” he said. “It’s a way of avoiding responsibility. If something goes wrong, you can always point to a big name.”

In the case of Fujitsu and the Post Office Horizon program, he said the failure was not small and not one-off. “This was not an easy mistake. It destroyed people’s lives. The company only apologized when forced, and again resisted compensation. However, we are here again, issuing more public contracts.”

According to Megawarne, the same pattern plays out over and over again across government IT spending. “Big telecommunications companies win big contracts, fail spectacularly, and face no real consequences. It’s a cycle of failure without accountability.”

At the heart of the problem, Megawarne believes, is the risk aversion center.

“Real innovation exists in the UK, and a lot of it is sitting with innovators who are creating solutions that can really transform public services,” he said. “But the government is taking too much risk.”

He warned that innovators are being pushed down the wrong path, preparing shopping cards rather than solving real problems. “They’re chasing the perfect score in a framework that measures the wrong things, while innovation is sidelined for cost-cutting and box-ticking.”

“If the government really wants to open up new ways for Britain,” says Megawarne, “it needs to stop prioritizing spreadsheets over people, and start supporting ideas that actually work.”