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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 Caroline Dinenage (Conservative) on Thursday, 21 December 2017 on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions.

Department for Work and Pensions: ICT

Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his 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

DWP is delivering a number of major IT contract exit programmes, and has followed the guidance detailed in the paper titles Large Expiring Contracts, Exit and Disaggregation: guidance for departments which precedes the paper entitled Exiting Major IT Contracts: Guidance for Departments, published in November 2017, which is currently being reviewed by DWP, prior to implementation.

DWP engages with Cabinet Office Complex Transactions Team from the outset, when exiting major IT contracts to utilise their knowledge and experience in defining, and implementing commercial strategies.

These commercial strategies include all the points in a) to f) above and some recent examples are as follows;

a) DWP utilises Crown Commercial Service Frameworks when sourcing disaggregated IT services. The market is engaged to establish supplier capacity, capability and alignment to DWPs key business objectives.

b) DWP has disaggregated a number of IT supply contracts in recent years, is currently in the process of disaggregating the complex services of the DWP Hosting contract and will exit and disaggregate its remaining Application Deployment & Desktop contracts at an appropriate time.

c) Risk Assessment forms part of DWPs Contract Management Framework toolset and is assessed for all major contracts on a regular basis.

d) Detailed plans are produced and managed by Programme Leads for the exiting of all major IT contracts.

e) In conjunction with the work DWP is completing to disaggregate its historic contracts, DWP is further developing its supplier and contract management capabilities to equip the Department for the future; enhancing its major IT project delivery and contract exit commercial skills.

f) DWP utilises multi-disciplinary teams including Digital Group, Finance, HR, Legal and Commercial. Good programme governance is also followed both within DWP and through close working with HM Treasury and Cabinet Office.

DWP will continue to follow the guiding principles and critical tasks set out in this latest publication.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
119860
Session
2017-19
Subjects
Department for Work and Pensions ICT Procurement
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk