Government Shared Services

Public Accounts Committee Closed Inquiry
Opened: 28 Nov 2022 Closed: 21 Jul 2023 Parliament page
Since 2004, central government has sought to cut its costs through the sharing of back-office functions between departments. This work has been led by the Cabinet Office, which owns and oversees the Shared Services strategy. In 2018, the Cabinet Office published a new ten-year strategy for shared services which had … Read more
6 Recommendations
17 Conclusions
1 Report
1 Oral session
1 Letter
1 Event
Activity timeline 4 events
21 Jul
2023
Report published
5 May
2023
Report published
7 Feb
2023
Correspondence
16 Jan
2023
Oral evidence
Oral evidence sessions 1 session
16 Jan 2023
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Government Shared Services
Alex Chisholm · Cabinet Office Debbie Alder · Department for Work and Pensions Nathan Moores · Cabinet Office Peter Schofield · Department for Work and Pensions
Title HC No. Published Items Response
Fiftieth Report - Government Shared Services HC 734 5 May 2023 23 Response document linked
Recommendations & Conclusions
23 results
2 Conclusion
Fiftieth Report - Government Share…
Revisit and revise Cabinet Office 'Case for Change'; complete future business cases fully.
The Cabinet Office did not produce an overarching business case for the Shared Services Strategy, which has hindered progress. HM Treasury’s guidance to government departments states that a business case should be used to support all major programmes and projects … Read more
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3 Recommendation
Fiftieth Report - Government Share…
Resolve short and long-term funding uncertainties for the Shared Services Strategy.
Departments do not have the funding they need to deliver on their Shared Services Strategy. There are both short- and long-term funding uncertainties to delivering the strategy. In the short-term, HM Treasury approved a funding envelope of £300 million to … Read more
HM Treasury
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4 Conclusion
Fiftieth Report - Government Share…
Develop a complete and consistent cost-benefit picture for the Shared Services Strategy.
The benefits of the strategy have not been properly quantified. The Cabinet Office did not calculate anticipated benefits of the refreshed strategy, and instead has relied on clusters developing cost and benefits figures as parts of their own separate business … Read more
HM Treasury
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5 Conclusion
Fiftieth Report - Government Share…
Develop methods to track overall progress of the Shared Services Strategy and cluster milestones.
The Cabinet Office has yet to start monitoring overall progress of the government’s Shared Services Strategy. The Cabinet Office has no performance indicators that measure strategy progress. Shared services performance measures consider only business-as-usual service provision such as payroll accuracy, … Read more
HM Treasury
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6 Conclusion
Fiftieth Report - Government Share…
Disseminate positive and negative lessons from the Shared Services Strategy for future projects.
There are lessons to be learned from this strategy that will be applicable to future government projects. We have often reported on the challenges that government faces in delivering cross-departmental initiatives, programmes and strategies. A number of these issues continue … Read more
HM Treasury
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1 Conclusion
Fiftieth Report - Government Share…
Committee took evidence on government shared services from lead departments.
On the basis of a Report by the Comptroller and Auditor General, we took evidence from the Cabinet Office and the Department for Work & Pensions, the lead department for the ‘Synergy’ shared services cluster, on government shared services.1
HM Treasury
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7 Conclusion
Fiftieth Report - Government Share…
Government Shared Services Strategy demonstrates step change in progress since 2021 refresh.
The government is just over four years into its latest Shared Services Strategy. Since the Cabinet Office refreshed it in 2021, introducing the ‘cluster’ delivery model, there has been a step change in progress. The ‘Defence’ and ‘Overseas’ clusters have … Read more
HM Treasury
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8 Conclusion
Fiftieth Report - Government Share…
Significant risks, including funding and timetable, persist for Shared Services Strategy delivery.
The Cabinet Office told us that the strategy is on track.8 However, several risks remain to its delivery. For example, the Department of Work & Pensions set out three main risks for the ‘Synergy’ shared services cluster: funding uncertainties; a … Read more
HM Treasury
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9 Recommendation
Fiftieth Report - Government Share…
Inadequate contingency planning exposes Synergy shared services cluster to significant delivery risks.
The Department for Work & Pensions explained that the only contingency plans the ‘Synergy’ cluster had in place should it not receive the required level of funding for its shared services plans would be to implement its plans more slowly. … Read more
HM Treasury
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10 Recommendation
Fiftieth Report - Government Share…
Previous recommendation highlighted necessity of comprehensive business cases for shared services success.
When we last reported on government shared services in 2016, we recommended that the then current strategy should be supported by a realistic and complete business case that was updated regularly.12 This is in line with HM Treasury guidance that … Read more
HM Treasury
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11 Recommendation
Fiftieth Report - Government Share…
Cabinet Office failed to produce central business case, leading to rejected funding bids.
The Cabinet Office told us that it did not produce a business case for its current strategy as it believed time was of the essence in terms of both cost opportunities and the fact that old systems were coming to … Read more
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12 Recommendation
Fiftieth Report - Government Share…
Absence of early central business case hindered risk management and taxpayer savings.
The Cabinet Office plans to revisit its “Case for Change” now that clusters have completed their own individual business cases, updating this to include a more detailed position on the costs and benefits of the strategy.19 We noted that the … Read more
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13 Conclusion
Fiftieth Report - Government Share…
HM Treasury approved £300 million funding for shared services, despite earlier bid rejections.
Although HM Treasury rejected cluster bids for funding, it approved a funding envelope of £300 million to cover the period up to 2024–25. This was to support these clusters to deliver the strategy and to address the risk that departments … Read more
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14 Conclusion
Fiftieth Report - Government Share…
Departments warn current shared services funding settlement may be insufficient for delivery.
Departments have stated that this settlement may not be enough to allow them to proceed with their preferred procurement options if final costs, which they currently estimate to be between £382 million and £403 million, continue to exceed the funding … Read more
HM Treasury
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15 Conclusion
Fiftieth Report - Government Share…
Cabinet Office failed to quantify programme-wide shared services costs and benefits from outset.
The Cabinet Office’s original expectation was that the strategy would lead to savings of 10% to 15% in operating costs, based on what other large public and private sector organisations across the world had been able to achieve.26 It did … Read more
HM Treasury
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16 Conclusion
Fiftieth Report - Government Share…
Shared services clusters use inconsistent methods for calculating potential benefits.
In autumn 2022, the business cases of three clusters (‘Synergy’, ‘Matrix’ and ‘Unity’) identified potential benefits (both “cashable” and “non-cashable”) of £2 billion at an estimated cost of £0.9 billion.29 However, the three clusters have not calculated these figures on … Read more
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17 Recommendation
Fiftieth Report - Government Share…
Cabinet Office actively revising and standardising shared services benefits estimates for consistency.
The Cabinet Office told us that it is working with HM Treasury and all five clusters to revise and externally validate these estimates and obtain a benefits figure from the ‘Defence’ cluster. It said that it is working to ensure … Read more
HM Treasury
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18 Conclusion
Fiftieth Report - Government Share…
Cabinet Office lacks comprehensive performance indicators to track Shared Services Strategy progress.
The Cabinet Office has no performance indicators that measure progress of the Shared Services Strategy.34 When asked what metrics were used to monitor progress of the strategy, the Cabinet office told us that there are three elements to this: two … Read more
HM Treasury
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19 Conclusion
Fiftieth Report - Government Share…
Cabinet Office developing new performance measures to compare and support shared services clusters.
The final element that the Cabinet Office is working on is how to identify and implement measures that will drive quality and performance in the future.37 It explained that each cluster is accountable for delivery and has its own team … Read more
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20 Conclusion
Fiftieth Report - Government Share…
Cabinet Office plans to modernise performance measures and introduce external benchmarks for services.
Once the new services and updated technology are in place, the Cabinet Office said it plans to revise the business-as-usual performance measures, many of which are decades old, in order to utilise more modern measurements such as the net promoter … Read more
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21 Conclusion
Fiftieth Report - Government Share…
Government consistently encounters significant challenges delivering complex cross-departmental initiatives and programmes.
We have often highlighted the various challenges that government faces in delivering cross-departmental initiatives, programmes and strategies. These challenges include measuring and reporting of progress, common data, getting departmental buy- in, and achieving the right balance between central and departmental … Read more
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22 Conclusion
Fiftieth Report - Government Share…
Shared services clusters undertaking valuable lessons learned exercises, showing early positive outcomes.
The Cabinet Office said that each cluster has undertaken a lessons learned exercise. For example, the ‘Synergy’ cluster’s outline business case explicitly goes through the lessons learned and says how those are addressed in their programme.42 The Department for Work … Read more
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23 Conclusion
Fiftieth Report - Government Share…
2021 strategy refresh significantly improved collaboration and functional leadership in shared services.
There has been a noticeable change in pace since the introduction of the 2021 strategy refresh.45 The Cabinet Office highlighted what was different, namely that government functions such as HR, finance and commercial had taken the lead and set standards … Read more
HM Treasury
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Correspondence 1 letter
7 Feb 2023 Correspondence Alex Chisholm, Civil Service Chief Operating Officer and Permanent Secretary, Cabinet Office, re: Government Shared Services Inquiry (Monday 16 January 2023) : Additional responses, dated 30 January 2023
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