Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

UK Government’s ‘AI Skills Hub’ was delivered by PwC for £4.1M

mahadk.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 153 posts

Re: UK Government’s ‘AI Skills Hub’ was delivered by PwC for £4.1M

#81

Post by hkt »

edoceo wrote: post #42
londons_explore wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The fact that it didn’t actually solve the problem is inconsequential to PwC You are mistaken. The fact it does not solve the problem is good for business , because follow up contracts to resolve any shortcomings will most likely also be awarded to PwC, since they are the only bidder to already have the in house expertise on this bespoke site...

I feel like code for public systems, government systems should be open source.

A lot of it is! It has been this way for a long time in some parts of the public sector, eg:

https://github.com/ministryofjustice

I don't know of a department that does it as well as MoJ, though. Caveats exist around old private sector implemented systems like the prisons and probation databases etc, which even MoJ itself doesn't own the IP for. But everything made by civil servants or contractors at MoJ ends up published in that org unless there's a good reason not to.

Edit: FOI in principle allows you to request a cut of a git repo etc for a service, so you can impose annoyance upon departments that are less open.

Re: UK Government’s ‘AI Skills Hub’ was delivered by PwC for £4.1M

#82

Post by nick49488171 »

woooooo wrote: post #73
marcus_holmes wrote: post #27

This is pretty normal for government procurement, though. and in fact, most large organisation procurement. There's a whole wall of standards that the supplier must meet, e.g. ISO9000 that your little web-dev shop almost certainly doesn't. They won't buy from a supplier that is likely to go out of business. There's a ton of other criteria that you've got to meet to get the business. If there's any , even the slightes…

I think you're being a little unfair to the civil servant who has to follow the law regarding procurement. I once knew someone who had to solicit 3 bids and document them to buy a $500 camera for local government. They weren't thinking "I am useless and craven", they were thinking "this is silly but I have to do it".

Screenshot of the top 3 results on Google shopping ought to do it

Re: UK Government’s ‘AI Skills Hub’ was delivered by PwC for £4.1M

#83

Post by jaimex2 »

pfych wrote: post #50
jaimex2 wrote: post #47

Eh, here in Australia we spent 96 million on the front end of a weather website. Estimated at $4 million originally. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-11-23/bureau-of-meteorology...

This budget included a full modernization of their infrastructure as well as the website redesign. It's still heaps of money - but the media saying "a website cost $96 million AUD" is misleading.

I'd sort of expect them to replace every radar they had for that kind of money.

Re: UK Government’s ‘AI Skills Hub’ was delivered by PwC for £4.1M

#84

Post by lmm »

krapht wrote: post #60
ebbi wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having worked in large corporates (and some government projects) issuing out RFPs, the final decision tends to go: let's just go with an established name like PwC even if they're more expensive (and given we have the budget approved already) as opposed to a small firm down the road that has a great portfolio, because if something goes wrong, I can say I relied on this big, proven firm, and not be criticized for using…

I've seen some small firms crash and burn too, though. The problem is small firms are easy-come, easy-go; they don't have enough reputation at stake. Not sure what a good solution is.

The large firms' reputation isn't really at stake though. They keep doing crap like this and it never harms their ability to get more contracts.

Re: UK Government’s ‘AI Skills Hub’ was delivered by PwC for £4.1M

#85

Post by wongarsu »

nick49488171 wrote: post #82
woooooo wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you're being a little unfair to the civil servant who has to follow the law regarding procurement. I once knew someone who had to solicit 3 bids and document them to buy a $500 camera for local government. They weren't thinking "I am useless and craven", they were thinking "this is silly but I have to do it".

Screenshot of the top 3 results on Google shopping ought to do it

And even if doesn't, writing five online shops to send you a written offer takes a couple minutes and results in the same or lower prices

Procurement for such small items can be quick and sane. It's the larger items where rules tighten and procurement portals or bidding become mandated that are problematic

Re: UK Government’s ‘AI Skills Hub’ was delivered by PwC for £4.1M

#87

Post by Foobar8568 »

woooooo wrote: post #73
marcus_holmes wrote: post #27

This is pretty normal for government procurement, though. and in fact, most large organisation procurement. There's a whole wall of standards that the supplier must meet, e.g. ISO9000 that your little web-dev shop almost certainly doesn't. They won't buy from a supplier that is likely to go out of business. There's a ton of other criteria that you've got to meet to get the business. If there's any , even the slightes…

I think you're being a little unfair to the civil servant who has to follow the law regarding procurement. I once knew someone who had to solicit 3 bids and document them to buy a $500 camera for local government. They weren't thinking "I am useless and craven", they were thinking "this is silly but I have to do it".

For a government contract we budgeted somewhere between 50k and 100k to change a deployment script.

I was against it, but "you know, if they don't do it, they no longer give a warranty on the solution", type of bullshit. Yeah 60md of warranty? My client are a bunch of fools.

Like ONG, bribes and extracting public money is the first target.

Re: UK Government’s ‘AI Skills Hub’ was delivered by PwC for £4.1M

#88

Post by Foobar8568 »

gerdesj wrote: post #39
marcus_holmes wrote: post #27

This is pretty normal for government procurement, though. and in fact, most large organisation procurement. There's a whole wall of standards that the supplier must meet, e.g. ISO9000 that your little web-dev shop almost certainly doesn't. They won't buy from a supplier that is likely to go out of business. There's a ton of other criteria that you've got to meet to get the business. If there's any , even the slightes…

When was the last time you touted for this sort of business? Strictly speaking its ISO 9001 but we do the same as you and call it ISO 9000. You forgot 27001 and 14001.

Iso that everyone is certified but nobody can truly explain or follow, ensuring the money is extracted to the same bunch of bidders.

Re: UK Government’s ‘AI Skills Hub’ was delivered by PwC for £4.1M

#89

Post by canadiantim »

boznz wrote: post #75
dizzy9 wrote: post #9

In the past, expensive contracts like this were handed out as rewards to Tory donors. Help fund the party's re-election, and your company will receive a cushy reward. See also the Cash-for-Honours scandal, where the Labour party were also found giving preference to donors in the selection for lordships. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cash-for-Honours_scandal

"In the Past", Now, and in the future.

in every democracy or other system of government, it's the same.

Re: UK Government’s ‘AI Skills Hub’ was delivered by PwC for £4.1M

#90

Post by ryanm101 »

edoceo wrote: post #42
londons_explore wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The fact that it didn’t actually solve the problem is inconsequential to PwC You are mistaken. The fact it does not solve the problem is good for business , because follow up contracts to resolve any shortcomings will most likely also be awarded to PwC, since they are the only bidder to already have the in house expertise on this bespoke site...

I feel like code for public systems, government systems should be open source.

https://github.com/govuk-one-login

Some of it is

Post reply on HN