UK government continues shared services drive with MoJ IT project

The move, announced by the MoJ last week, is part of the government's shared services initiative.

Under the Cabinet Office’s Next Generation Shared Services strategy, central government departments are expected to transfer back-office functions, such as human resources, finance and payroll, to shared service centres. The MoJ moved data about approximately 75,000 staff onto a single IT operating platform used by other departments in the last few weeks as part of that move.

The MoJ said the shared services initiative is projected to deliver £300 million in government savings by 2024, and that the platform to which the data has been migrated is also "secure, sustainable and easily upgraded for the future".

Simon Colvin, expert in IT contracts at Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com, said: "Pinsent Masons has been involved in a number of the shared service deals and recognise the importance of the shared services model to underpin efficiencies and align common processes across central government. We are delighted to see that the shared services model is aggregating across central government and that a major milestone has been reached with MoJ."

"Clearly, as more customers on-board to the shared service model, the better the savings and wider benefits to central government and the public purse. This is particularly the case at a time when the chancellor is looking for greater savings at department level," he said.

Chris Skidmore, minister for the constitution within the Cabinet Office, said: "We are addressing the challenges involved in cross-government business transformation and the programme is successfully delivering one of the biggest IT platforms for government in Europe with over 300,000 users. Shared service centres deliver business services at a significantly lower cost to the taxpayer while ensuring effective services for government and the public sector wherever possible."

A report by the National Audit Office in May 2016 said that, at that stage, the shared services drive had delivered some cost savings but "not achieved the significant anticipated savings and benefits to date".