Written question asked by Jon Trickett (Labour) on Friday, 15 December 2017, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Tuesday, 19 December 2017. It was answered by Robert Goodwill (Conservative) on Friday, 22 December 2017 on behalf of the Department for Education.

Department for Education: ICT

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to implement the guidance set out by the Government Commercial Function in its paper entitled Exiting Major IT Contracts: Guidance for Departments, published in November 2017, in respect of (a) using market engagement, (b) setting up disaggregation work, (c) risk assessment, (d) developing a programme plan through the transition, (e) identifying the skills and capabilities that will be needed in the future and (f) any other work related to that guidance.

Answer: IT services are primarily delivered by our internal digital, data and technology division (DDAT), and the Department for Education (DfE) has not entered into any large outsourcing contracts with a single vendor arrangement that has spend of over £20 million per year. The DfE has used a multi-vendor approach combined with our in-house delivered IT services; as well as using a cloud-first principle for new procurements.

Secondary information