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Taxpayers and the environment big winners under new Cabinet Office ICT contract

Cabinet Office this week switched to a new supplier of ICT services – Fujitsu Services.

Savings for the Cabinet Office will include £2.5m per year and over 300 tonnes of carbon emissions compared to its existing contract. The new deal has been structured to promote efficiency, reduce costs and environmental impact, and improve the service experienced by users.

Public sector Flex, as the new service is branded, establishes the potential to deliver a ‘shared service’ to multiple public sector organisations bringing a real prospect of both significant cost reductions through common infrastructure and more effective collaboration and reuse of systems. Discussions are already underway with interested public sector bodies, including the Office of National Statistics.

Fujitsu's solution was selected through an open competition and made use of the new Competitive Dialogue procedure, introduced under EU procurement legislation in 2006, the first major ICT outsourcing to be completed using this route in the UK.

Fujitsu's previous successes in Government IT Services include major programmes at DWP, Home Office and Northern Ireland Civil Service.

Government Chief Information Officer John Suffolk said:

“The new Cabinet Office ICT deal is win–win–win, for staff, for taxpayers and the environment.”

The green ICT principles embedded in the contract will impact staff and the environment in several ways. For example, the service will allow more flexible and home working reducing travel and enabling more efficient use of office accommodation. Users will be equipped with modern, efficient thin–client devices, which consume a fraction of the energy used by a traditional PC. This factor alone is expected to reduce Cabinet Office's carbon emissions by over 300 tonnes each year.

Notes to editors

1. The annual value of the new contract will be approximately £8million per year
2. The original OJEU notice for this contract is known as: 2006/S 131–140659 dated 13th July 2006
3. There are no plans to migrate any services or jobs offshore, and the contract specifically prevents Fujitsu from doing so without the prior consent of the Cabinet Office.
4. The overall Transforming Government Implementation plan, of which this deal is a part, can be found at www.cio.gov.uk[External website]

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