Digital Government Outlook 2026: United Kingdom
Table of contents
This country note presents an overview of the digital government landscape in the United Kingdom drawing on the results of the 2025 OECD Digital Government Index (DGI) and the 2025 OECD OURdata Index. The note outlines key policy developments in the country observed during the assessment period. It aims to inform policy dialogue and support the United Kingdom in advancing a whole-of-government approach to digital transformation in the public sector.
In the 2025 edition of the OECD Digital Government Index, the United Kingdom attained a score of 0.84, above the OECD average of 0.70. This represents a 0.06 increase since 2023 (Figure 1).
The United Kingdom recorded higher scores in Digital by Design (0.96), User-Driven (0.93), Data-driven Public Sector (0.92), Proactiveness (0.79) and Government as a Platform (0.78), compared with OECD averages of 0.75, 0.71, 0.74, 0.67 and 0.71, respectively. These results show that the United Kingdom has advanced in embedding digital technologies across government, placing users at the centre of service design, and leveraging data as a strategic asset for decision-making.
The United Kingdom scored above the OECD average in Open by Default (0.70 vs 0.59), though this remains its comparatively lowest dimension. This suggests that the United Kingdom could further strengthen its efforts in promoting openness and transparency of government data and processes.
In the 2025 edition of the OECD OURdata Index, the United Kingdom attained a score of 0.50, below the OECD average of 0.53 (Figure 2). This represents a 0.12 increase since 2023.
The United Kingdom recorded a higher score in Data availability (0.67), above the OECD average of 0.53. This reflects the country's efforts in ensuring a broad range of government datasets are made available to the public.
The United Kingdom scored below the OECD average in Data accessibility (0.55 vs 0.67) and Government support for data re-use (0.28 vs 0.40). This means that the United Kingdom has room for improvement in enhancing the accessibility of open data and in strengthening government-led initiatives to promote its re-use and public value creation.
The United Kingdom has established a comprehensive digital government governance structure. The Government Digital Service (GDS) leads public sector digital policy and delivery, formerly under the Transforming for a digital future: 2022 to 2025 roadmap and now through the Blueprint for Modern Digital Government (2025).
The development of AI tools for use across government in the United Kingdom is driven by the Incubator for AI (i.AI). Key projects include: Extract, an AI tool that converts old planning documents into modernised geospatial data; Consult, which uses AI to analyse public consultation responses; and Parlex, a research assistant that analyses past parliamentary debate and question contributions
The GDS is developing a growing suite of digital public infrastructure, building on the GOV.UK website. This includes GOV.UK Pay, the payments platform for the UK public sector, supporting transactions across government, the National Health Service, and the police. More recently, the GOV.UK App was released in July 2025 to offer a more joined-up digital experience of government, and the GOV.UK Wallet will enable users to hold government-issued documents and credentials digitally.
While the United Kingdom performs well in areas such as project management, monitoring, and evaluation, broader components of its digital investment framework could be strengthened. A dedicated GovTech strategy, systematic risk assessments for digital projects, and ex-post cost-benefit analysis remain limited. Developing these capabilities could support more comprehensive oversight across the investment lifecycle.
Despite strong performance across most dimensions of human-centred services, a central catalogue of services accessible to users has not yet been reported in the United Kingdom. Establishing such a catalogue could help citizens and businesses navigate available government services and support coherence across departments.
The OECD Digital Government Outlook (DGO) provides a comprehensive assessment of digital government policies across OECD Members and accession candidate countries. It draws on the results of the 2025 OECD Digital Government Index (DGI) and the 2025 OECD Open, Useful and Re-usable Data (OURdata) Index to evaluate progress and identify persistent gaps in digital transformation across the public sector.
The DGI assesses the enabling foundations for digital transformation across six dimensions: Digital by Design, Data-driven Public Sector, Government as a Platform, Open by Default, User-Driven and Proactiveness. Rather than measuring the digitalisation of specific services, the DGI focuses on the strategies, policy levers, implementation practices and monitoring mechanisms that enable coherent, whole-of-government digital transformation.
The OURdata Index benchmarks the robustness of open government data policies across three pillars: data availability, data accessibility and government support for data re-use. It supports policymakers in monitoring the design and implementation of national open government data policies.
Both indices were developed with OECD Member countries through the OECD Working Party of Senior Digital Government Officials (E-Leaders) and approved by the OECD Public Governance Committee.
Figure 1: The 2025 DGI OECD average does not include Germany and the United States. 2025 data cover the period from 1 January 2023 to 31 December 2024. The 2023 OECD average does not include Germany, Greece, Slovakia, Switzerland and the United States. 2023 data cover the period from 1 January 2021 to 31 October 2022. The composite score is the unweighted average of the six-dimension scores.
Figure 2: The 2025 and 2023 OURdata Index OECD average does not include Denmark, Hungary and the United States. 2025 data cover the period from 1 January 2023 to 31 December 2024. 2023 data cover the period from 1 January 2020 to 31 December 2021. The composite score is the unweighted average of the three-pillar scores.
This work is published under the responsibility of the Secretary-General of the OECD. The opinions expressed and arguments employed herein do not necessarily reflect the official views of the Member countries of the OECD.
This document, as well as any data and map included herein, are without prejudice to the status of or sovereignty over any territory, to the delimitation of international frontiers and boundaries and to the name of any territory, city or area.
The statistical data for Israel are supplied by and under the responsibility of the relevant Israeli authorities. The use of such data by the OECD is without prejudice to the status of the Golan Heights, East Jerusalem and Israeli settlements in the West Bank under the terms of international law.
The full book is available in English: OECD (2026), Digital Government Outlook 2026: From Foundations to Transformational Impact, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/0496b2bc-en.
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