Within the UK's Civil Service you occasionally hear the expression "being invited to a meeting without biscuits". It implies a rather frosty discussion without any of the polite niceties of a normal meeting. In general though, even when people have severe disagreements, it is rare for tempers to fray. It is even rarer for those internal disagreements to spill over into public.  Which is what…

Terence Eden

The UK's Government Digital Service (GDS) has published guidance directly rebuking NHS England's decision to close nearly 200 public open source repositories, citing unfounded fears of AI-enabled vulnerability scanning. The GDS guidance argues that making code private creates a false sense of security, does not address underlying weaknesses, and can become a one-way door. The author, a former NHSX open technology lead who helped craft the original open source policies, calls the NHS decision irresponsible and urges DHSC to bring NHS England back in line with best practice — or for GDS to reassert its authority as a technical veto body.

GDS weighs in on the NHS's decision to retreat from Open Source