Why the UK Public Sector Still Creaks Along on COBOL
16th August 2025
The UK government has gone all-in on AI. More than 50 years after Harold Wilson gave his famous “White heat of technology” speech, this is the hot new thing. An AI Strategy has been released. Datacenters are planned. Steps to strengthen AI supply chains are being formulated. And of course, the public sector will lead by example in AI usage.
Whitehall might talk a big game when it comes to IT, but so far the words haven’t fit the picture. Its own State of Digital Government report, released in January, found the central government’s IT portfolio wanting. It classified 28 percent of central government systems as legacy, rising to 70 percent in some areas. HMRC is still paying contractors top dollar to maintain COBOL systems.
Legacy has a specific meaning in government, per the study: “unsupported, has known vulnerabilities, is difficult to maintain, or is unable to meet current business or user needs.”
“For years this problem has plagued both public and private sector organisations,” says Heather Cover-Kus, head of central government at UK tech industry association techUK. “However, the issue is more complex for the public sector as the cost of getting things wrong is very high, as is the cost of doing nothing.”