Connecting the country: using data and digital infrastructure to unlock productivity

The Department for Transport’s priority outcomes are clear. As set out in the National Audit Office’s overview of the Department for Transport (November 2025), DfT aims to work with its agencies and partners to support a transport network that boosts economic growth, delivers greener, safer and healthier transport, and improves transport for people by making it safe, accessible, reliable and integrated.

For the arm’s-length bodies operating across the DfT ecosystem, these priorities translate into a common challenge: how to deliver better outcomes across an increasingly complex, historically fragmented  transport landscape. Policy ambition is high, public expectations are rising, and fiscal and operational constraints are tightening. Against that backdrop, this report explores each of DfT’s three priority outcomes and shares SCC’s vision for unlocking progress by: reducing fragmentation, breaking down data silos and increasing agility across the transport sector.

SCC works with transport organisations to help address exactly that challenge. As a large, established, vendor-agnostic technology partner and systems integrator, we help simplify complexity across estates, data, infrastructure and services. SCC is 100% British-owned and privately held by Rigby Group, with 50 years supporting the public sector and more than 600 public sector organisations we work with today. That ownership model supports long-term investment, sustained capability building and the agility to adapt in a sector where programmes, assets and outcomes span decades.

Unlocking economic growth through data-driven infrastructure

DfT’s first priority is growth: improving productivity through a transport network that better connects people, places and businesses. That is not only about building new infrastructure. It is increasingly about how well existing networks are planned, operated and adapted over time. As budgets tighten and demand patterns shift, transport organisations need better visibility of their assets, stronger planning capability and more confidence in the decisions they make.

This is where data-driven infrastructure has a growing role to play. Digital twins, sensor-led monitoring and advanced analytics can help organisations model demand, test interventions, understand constraints and respond to maintenance in a more robust way. Used well, these capabilities improve planning, support better investment decisions and reduce the risks associated with changing policy, operational pressures or emerging technologies. 

 We see this in practice through initiatives such as “digital roads”, where sensors, connectivity and analytics are combined to monitor network performance in near real time. These approaches allow traffic flows to be adjusted dynamically, incidents to be identified earlier and maintenance to be better targeted. Digital twins extend this capability further by enabling operators to model long-term demand and test changes virtually before committing physical or financial resources.

SCC supports these capabilities by working with more than 300 technology partners across data, cloud, networking, AI and analytics. Maintaining a vendor agnostic approach allows us to help transport organisations adopt best-of-breed solutions while designing architectures that remain flexible, scalable and aligned to long-term objectives rather than short-term product decisions.

Greener, safer and healthier transport starts with credible foundations

The department’s second priority focuses on greener, safer and healthier transport. That includes decarbonisation, climate resilience, safer systems and better public health outcomes. In practice, these goals are closely linked to the quality of the digital and operational foundations that sit underneath the transport network.

A big part of that is taking a full lifecycle view of infrastructure and technology. Sustainability outcomes are shaped not only by what organisations deploy, but by how assets are maintained, reused and retired. Better data can support more efficient operations, optimise maintenance planning, reduce waste and extend asset life. Secure, well-governed platforms can also improve resilience, reporting and visibility across complex supply chains.  That lifecycle perspective is something SCC understands well. We have invested £5 million in SCC Recyclea, our UK-based IT recycling, refurbishment and reuse facility, which processes over one million devices each year. This supports a more circular approach to technology and helps public sector organisations reduce waste, recover value from assets and make progress towards net zero ambitions. SCC itself is committed to achieving net zero by 2040.

Designing transport around the passenger

DfT’s third priority outcome — improving transport for people — sets out a clear ambition: a transport system that focuses on people’s needs and is safe, accessible, reliable and integrated. The ambition is widely shared. The challenge lies in what continues to hinder progress.

The first barrier is fragmentation. Ticketing systems, data platforms, service standards and operational responsibilities are still often defined locally, even when passenger journeys are not. The Netherlands provides a useful example of what more integrated travel could look like, with joined-up ticketing and journey planning helping passengers move more easily across regions and modes.

The second barrier is rising passenger expectation. People increasingly expect transport to offer the same clarity and convenience they experience in other digital services. We can see that reflected in reforms such as Queensland’s low-cost fares, Victoria’s free travel for under-18s, and London’s Zip Oyster photocard scheme, which provides free or discounted travel for children and young people across the network. Together, these examples point to a wider shift: transport is increasingly judged on user experience as well as infrastructure.

Designing transport around the passenger therefore requires more than better front-end tools. It depends on reducing data silos, improving interoperability and enabling organisations to share information more effectively. That is where connected platforms, real-time data and predictive analytics can help operators move from reactive service management to a more proactive model.

SCC and our network of technology partners support transport organisations in building these capabilities. By integrating data platforms, modernising infrastructure and applying experience-led service design, we help create transport environments that can adapt as passenger needs evolve, while remaining secure, resilient and compliant.

Conclusion

Although DfT’s three priorities are distinct, they rely on many of the same underlying capabilities. Growth, sustainability and passenger experience all depend on reducing fragmentation, improving visibility and making better use of data. For arms-length bodies and transport organisations operating in a complex ecosystem, the challenge is not simply adopting new technology. It is connecting systems, services and information in a way that supports delivery at scale.

That is the capability SCC brings to the market. With 50 years in public sector, relationships across 600+ public sector organisations, a vendor agnostic approach to working with 300+ technology partners, and the long-term backing of Rigby Group, we support transport organisations in turning policy ambition into practical delivery.

SCC is hosting an upcoming roundtable “Driving the Future of Public Sector Operations with AI” alongside Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) and NVIDIA, exploring how AI and advanced infrastructure can support the next generation of UK transport systems and wider public sector operations. You can register your interest in attending the event here.