UK Inquiry Tracker

Shared services

Public Accounts Committee Open Inquiry

Opened: 20 Mar 2026 Parliament page

In order to operate effectively, Government Departments need access to a range of back-office functions such as human resources and payroll. Since 2004, the government has attempted to centralise these functions to cut the cost of services and improve the consistency of data. The latest strategy published in 2021, led … Read more

30 Conclusions

1 Report

1 Oral session

1 Letter

1 Event

Activity timeline 3 events

15 Jul
2026

Report published

10th Report - Government shared services

8 Jun
2026

Correspondence

Letter from the Director General Future Civil Service at the Cabinet Office relating to RE: Follow-up to Committee Hearing: Government Shar…

14 May
2026

Oral evidence

Oral evidence session

Oral evidence sessions 1 session

14 May 2026

View on parliament.uk

Caitlin Kinsella · Cabinet Office Cat Little CB · Cabinet Office Dianne Jeans · Department for Work & Pensions Jerome Glass CB · Home Office Marcus Mason · HM Treasury Nathan Moores · Cabinet Office

Reports 1 report · click to expand

Title	HC No.	Published	Items	Response
10th Report - Government shared services	HC 85	15 Jul 2026	30	Pending

Recommendations & Conclusions

30 results

2 Conclusion

10th Report - Government shared se…

We are astounded that the Cabinet Office appears unable to clearly articulate the value for...

We are astounded that the Cabinet Office appears unable to clearly articulate the value for money case of its Shared Services Strategy. The Cabinet Office claims that the Shared Services Strategy is now set to deliver £4.3 billion in benefits. … Read more We are astounded that the Cabinet Office appears unable to clearly articulate the value for money case of its Shared Services Strategy. The Cabinet Office claims that the Shared Services Strategy is now set to deliver £4.3 billion in benefits. But this figure does not reflect costs, and the department was initially unable to quantify what these costs are or how they relate to the costs of continuing with individual services for each department. The Cabinet Office has developed a dashboard 3 bringing together clusters’ delivery data, including data on benefits, costs, and milestones. But the Cabinet Office cannot enforce timely, accurate and good quality returns, limiting the dashboard’s usefulness. The Cabinet Office has granted clusters discretion over key delivery decisions, notably outsourcing. It has not quantified the value-for-money case of the Synergy cluster outsourcing to Capita relative to the Unity cluster’s in-house service model. This Committee’s predecessors have criticised Capita’s poor performance on a range of government contracts, including those with the Ministry of Defence for handling recruitment and with NHS England for supporting primary care services. More recently, Capita’s poor performance administering the Civil Service Pension Scheme is a matter of ongoing concern for this Committee. Correspondence we received from the Cabinet Office after our evidence session—on benefits, costs and cluster outsourcing—is inconsistent with the National Audit Office’s findings, and lacks sufficient rigour to establish shared services’ value for money. recommendation The Cabinet Office should urgently publish a case for change outlining how its Shared Services Strategy will deliver value for money, including: a. the economic case, comparing the current way forward’s benefits and costs to viable alternatives; b. a roadmap which clearly sets out timetables, dates and costs until all elements of government in scope of the strategy would be onboarded; and c. a Show less

HM Treasury

Shared services

Activity timeline 3 events

Oral evidence sessions 1 session

Reports 1 report · click to expand

Recommendations & Conclusions

We are astounded that the Cabinet Office appears unable to clearly articulate the value for...

The Cabinet Office does not have the mandate to deliver its strategy successfully.

HM Treasury and the Department for Education are not formally committed to onboarding to their...

The Cabinet Office is failing to manage effectively the interdependencies with other government change programmes.

Implementation of the strategy is being delayed by the lack of reliable, consistent government HR...

On the basis of a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General, we took evidence...

The Cabinet Office treats shared services as a strategy rather than a single change programme.

The Cabinet Office told us that its Shared Services Strategy is now entering an important...

We noted parallels between the Shared Services Strategy and other cross-government cloud transformation initiatives.

Since this Committee last reported on shared services, the Cabinet Office responded to concerns about...

The Cabinet Office told us that the quality of data returns it uses in its...

In its subsequent correspondence with the Committee, the Cabinet Office clarified that its Strategy’s £4.3...

The Cabinet Office has given clusters discretion over their delivery models.

The Cabinet Office told us that granting clusters discretion over delivery decisions was intended to...

The Cabinet Office develops and oversees the Shared Services Strategy, but relies on the five...

The Cabinet Office considers that it oversees the overall Shared Services Strategy, but not for...

Numerous other boards are involved in shared services decision making despite not being part of...

The Cabinet Office recognises the continuing role of other boards and channels in governance activities.

Departments and ALBs are migrating to shared services from different starting points.

HM Treasury confirmed to us that while the department is supportive of the strategy, it...

The Shared Services Strategy has historically had mixed buy-in from departments.

HM Treasury has explained that departmental buy-in for shared services consists of two distinct commitments.

At least 25 other government digital transformation programmes are interdependent with shared services.

The Cabinet Office reset the governance of shared services in 2025.

The Cabinet Office recognised that managing interdependencies remains complex.

To be ready for shared services platforms, processes and data across government must be ‘converged’,...

Not all central government functions have engaged with NOVA to the same extent, which has...

The Cabinet Office, in which the Government People Function sits, conceded that progress on HR...

The Cabinet Office reported that it has made progress towards fully implementing converged HR processes...

In the light of the serious problems uncovered during our hearing, the Cabinet Office must...

Correspondence 1 letter