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https://pds.blog.parliament.uk/2025/06/16/launching-parliaments-technology-strategy-an-interview-with-mark-lyons-chief-technology-officer/

Launching Parliament’s Technology Strategy – An interview with Mark Lyons, Chief Technology Officer

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We’ve launched a new technology strategy for Parliament. Read our interview with PDS’s Chief Technology Officer, Mark Lyons, about what this means for Parliament and the people who work here.

Before we get into the strategy, how do you find working at Parliament? What are the highlights and the challenges for you?

It’s amazing. Everything we do enables the people we've elected to make decisions on behalf of the UK – we’re genuinely making a difference. To be able to walk into the Houses of Parliament and think, ‘this is where I work’ is pretty cool.

The biggest challenge from a tech perspective is that we're dealing with an ancient and iconic building. At the most basic level, we can't just drill holes in it to get network cables through it!

The other big challenge is our diverse range of end users within the Parliamentary community (whether that’s Parliament’s staff, Members of the House of Commons or their staff, or Members of the House of Lords) and their very different needs. But on the flipside, that’s an opportunity too as we get to interact with people with a vast range of skills and experiences.

Why does Parliament need a Technology Strategy? And ultimately, how is it going to benefit Parliament?

When I joined Parliament, just over a year and a half ago, we didn't have an overarching technology strategy. We had a lot of great road maps, and fantastic work going on, but there wasn't an overarching sense of direction. The Information and Digital strategy  sets out the digital ambition for Parliament, but we needed another layer to that which is where the Technology Strategy fits in.

The benefit for Parliament is that we've now got that direction of travel and targets we want to hit. There's a whole raft of things that we're going to improve over the coming years - modernised technology, simplified technology, self-service, cyber and information security capability.

What was your approach to developing the strategy?

A strategy should be high level, setting the direction of travel. I'm a big fan of a strategy on one page. A one-page strategy is a succinct, accessible format which everyone in Parliament can use as a reference point to think about their work and its impact, and how this aligns to the strategy.

We created a small working group within PDS to develop the strategy. And we came up with a set of things we wanted to achieve and address. We wanted to:

  1. Link to the themes of the Information and Digital strategy – Modernise, Transform, Enable, Protect
  2. Set out the influences, both internal and external to Parliament, that shaped our thoughts
  3. Address some of the key points in the House of Commons Administration Strategy and House of Lords Administration Strategy
  4. Define a set of themes and a set of future state statements (the outcomes we expect to see)

What comes next is a more detailed planning phase, where we get into how we are going to deliver these things and over what time period. Some of it will be fairly simple enhancement or maintenance activities, and there will also be bigger, more transformational programmes of work.

What have you found most interesting about developing a technology strategy in Parliament?

One of the interesting elements has been thinking about how we provide services to our diverse user base, particularly MPs and their staff. MPs are not employees of Parliament, and they employ their own staff team directly. Each constituency, represented by an MP, is very different (in terms of demographics, infrastructure, the local economy, for example) so the work of each MP, and what they and their teams need from us, really varies. Added to that, MPs have their own subject and policy interests and can be involved in different Parliamentary Committees. So it can feel like supporting 650 distinct organisations.

Thinking about MPs and their staff, about the flexibility and choice that they need whilst also trying to balance cybersecurity requirements, is an interesting context and challenge.

And again, the buildings, particularly the Palace of Westminster.  Providing network services in a building of this age and heritage is an interesting dynamic!

Thinking about the technology landscape, what would you say are that the top three opportunities Parliament hasn't yet fully taken advantage of that you'd like to accelerate with the strategy?

Firstly, more self-service. Lots of our users are technically savvy and have the ability, as well as the interest and enthusiasm, to develop their own digital solutions. We’ve already started to explore the concept of citizen developers (citizen meaning Parliamentary colleagues who are not professional developers). We want to expand on this. The idea that we can provide an environment for them to manage and build their own basic applications is really exciting.

Secondly, it’s got to be artificial intelligence, generative AI. It’s really advanced in the last two years and it's continuing to rapidly advance. We want to leverage that, particularly in terms of more automation around background tasks and manual repetitive processes, so that we have more time to spend on impactful work.

Lastly, and this is a broader point, giving more choice to our very diverse users. They want choice around hardware, software and processes. Most of us now walk around with multiple powerful devices (smartphones, watches, tablets). We need to find ways to support our users to access the tech that best meets their needs, but in a way that’s secure – protects our information, data, and technology.

Who have you spoken to develop the strategy?

We spoke to a small cohort of senior staff around Parliament to understand the needs of their teams and stakeholders. We also assessed calls that come into PDS’s service desk (a 24hr digital support desk for everyone who works in Parliament). We reviewed the external technology landscape, including how other organisations have approached this. We did some outreach with the user community in Parliament to sense check some things. And we spoke to some senior people from the House of Commons and House of Lords, and to Parliament’s Information and Digital Board who ratified the strategy. So, we've used a variety of research and intelligence.

What is the strategy going to mean for the people who work in tech roles at PDS? And why would somebody want to come and work for us, particularly in a tech role?

Firstly, PDS is a brilliant place to work. No matter what role you do in PDS, whether you perform the role I do, whether you're on the service desk or a network engineer, software developer, user researcher, change manager, delivery manager, we're all part of the machine that is making Parliament happen!

In terms of what it's going to mean for tech folk in Parliament, it’s a fundamental shift for us. This is about modernisation and how we push the boundaries to make technology more impactful, and to enable Parliament to operate effectively in the modern world, and everyone at PDS will play a part in this.

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Read Parliament’s Technology Strategy. The ‘one page’ strategy is on page 4.

Interested in working with us as we embark on this fundamental shift and make this strategy happen? Check out our careers page.

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