Conall Bullock becomes Cabinet Office's first chief digital officer

The Cabinet Office has appointed its very first chief digital officer, who will combine three different roles into one.

Conall Bullock, previously an IT consultant at his own firm, XcIT, will act as CIO, CTO and CDO for the government, but only adopt the latter title.

The appointment ends the Cabinet Office's search for the circa-90,000 post, which started back in January.

Bullock's first job will be to establish a new in-house "mini Government Digital Service (GDS)" for the Cabinet Office focusing on four areas mission-critical IT, shared services, the state of end user technology and digital services.

He will report into Cabinet Office permanent secretary, Richard Heaton, who revealed the appointment on Twitter yesterday.

GDS chief Mike Bracken and now also Whitehall's chief data officer - congratulated Bullock on the move, tweeting: "Enjoy your new role in Cabinet Office. Delighted you are here."

The CDO has a remit to support the GDS's digital drive by moving government away from legacy contracts and towards user-oriented digital technology.

Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude wants to see departments drive their own in-house services, and wants to be rid of all legacy contracts by 2020.

His office is currently working through an IT transformation programme designed to do just that.

On LinkedIn, Bullock described his role as leading "the teams responsible for delivering world leading technology and digital initiatives at the heart of government".

Bullock has previously served as interim IT director at Mencap, head of IT at Jewish Care, and interim head of IT at Bracknell Forest Homes.