For several decades, successive governments have contracted out public services to private providers. Where providers or suppliers fail, the government is often the fall-back owner of risks. This was demonstrated when Carillion failed and the government had to step in to fund a trading liquidation while contracts and services were transferred.38 We asked the Cabinet Office how likely it was that we would see another Carillion. It told us “never say never” but that it had introduced ‘playbooks’ to help define how to go to market in these areas. For complex outsourcing where government is the only customer, the Cabinet Office told us that it is “particularly important that we really understand the economics for the supplier and whether the gain share and pain share mechanisms are appropriate” and that it had “spent a lot more time thinking about that recently”. The Cabinet Office also explained how it requests a living will statement for critical contracts or complex outsourcing contracts. Each year, the vendor will have to confirm to the contracting authority whether it still passes the financial entry tests that are expected to be met at the beginning of a contract.39