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Mike Bracken suddenly decides to quit GOV.UK outfit GDS

An end to some of the self-licking lollipop's madness? Pff, that we should be so lucky

The head of the Government Digital Service, Mike Bracken, has stepped down after five years in the role.

No reason was given for the seemingly sudden departure, with Bracken set to stay until the end of September until his replacement is announced.

The Register understands that Bracken and the new chief executive of the Civil Service, John Manzoni had not been seeing eye-to-eye over what role the GDS should take and what the body has achieved.

There is also speculation that the GDS could see a major reduction in its headcount of its nearly 700 full-time staff and contractors.

In a farewell letter to digital gov staff, seen by El Reg, Bracken thanked his team.

"The Whitehall game of big departments doesn’t work for users – it works to sustain an image of relative size in a closed system, while users of our services don’t care about our internal IT budgets," he said.

"You’ve got the chance to demonstrate that large-scale technology transformation is possible and that cross-government working can be effective – in fact it’s the only way to get it done.

"The GDS leadership is strong, our plans are clear and focused, our people – and digital teams across government – are rolling up their sleeves to continue the work of transformation.

In a blog post Bracken also made a point of thanking Tim O’Reilly and Jen Pahlka in the US and said he would provide an update on where he was going next on his personal blog. ®

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