If we want to provide Government services via the internet, which is far cheaper than other forms of delivery, then a setup that doesn't ignore 0.9% of your use

If we want to provide Government services via the internet, which is far cheaper than other forms of delivery, then a setup that doesn't ignore 0.9% of your user base who can't run JS is worthwhile. They should also be caring about accessibility, something that most business give zero thought to (despite legal requirements) because they're the Government, it is their job to work for all citizens not just ignoring the ones that are difficult. There are some good tech people working in UK Government, there are also some utterly terrible ones. I'd far rather have GDS spending the odd million to provide a baseline of what we should expect from Government IT than put up the culture that has foisted every other Government IT disaster on us.