As the UK government promises to use public spending to back British business, research indicates that the tax collector has paid French tech giant Capgemini at least £4.2 billion since it began dismantling their flagship outsourcing arrangement. When Andy Burnham became Prime Minister in July, he said in his first speech that public procurement would "back British industry." The government later said businesses winning government contracts would need to show they were creating high-quality British jobs. However, the relationship between His Majesty's Revenue & Customs (HMRC) and Capgemini – which could ultimately span 32 years – shows the scale of that challenge. The worked with Otnox, which collects and standardizes public procurement data from more than 80 countries, to analyze HMRC's published transactions above £25,000. The records show that HMRC paid Capgemini at least £4.2 billion across 15,726 transactions between 2014 – when its Aspire contract with Capgemini was initially set to end – and July 2026. Sixteen months of data are missing from that period, so the true total may be higher. HMRC officials told The Reg the contract awards to Capgemini are fully compliant with UK procurement legislation and government policy. An HMRC spokesperson said: “While some strategic suppliers continue to play an important role in delivering critical services, we have moved from a small number of large legacy contracts to a more diverse supplier base. This has increased competition, innovation, and resilience in support of the government’s growth agenda.” Aspire began in 2004 as a ten-year contract with Capgemini as the prime supplier, but HMRC later extended it to June 2017. It became the government's largest technology contract, costing around £10 billion over 13 years. The arrangement, which also involved Fujitsu and Accenture, accounted for about 84 percent of HMRC's technology spending between April 2006 and March 2014. In 2016, the National Audit Office said Aspire provided stable but expensive IT systems. "The contract has contributed to HMRC's technology becoming out of date. HMRC is now replacing Aspire so that it can take greater control over how its IT is developed and provided," the spending watchdog said. "HMRC's commercial strategy is to work with more IT suppliers, including small and medium-sized enterprises. It will let shorter, more flexible contracts and avoid extending contracts wherever possible," the report added. When HMRC appeared before MPs in March 2015, it said it planned to replace Aspire in phases rather than extend it. Yet agreements announced in August 2015 and March 2016 kept some Aspire services running beyond the contract's June 2017 end date. Others were brought in-house or put out for fresh procurement, the NAO said. HM Treasury minutes published in November 2016 reflected the revised timetable. The tax collector said its "phased approach" to replacing Aspire services would take until 2020. "It is extending some Aspire services by a further three years..." it said, adding the plan to replace Aspire would produce annual savings of £200 million by 2020–21. In 2020, HMRC launched its Technology Sourcing Programme (TSP), promising to open its £900 million annual IT budget to a broader range of suppliers. The Cabinet Office later said that programme would produce £824.6 million in cash-releasing and non-cash releasing savings through IT modernization, including "supply chain control improvements and contract disaggregation." Capgemini nevertheless continued to win HMRC work, including contracts supporting systems it had built or operated under Aspire. Some were awarded without competition. In August this year, Capgemini won a £200 million, five-year contract to migrate and decommission HMRC's legacy data warehouses. In January 2022, Capgemini signed a £51 million agreement to continue supporting tax systems developed under Aspire. HMRC awarded Capgemini the three-year deal to support its Enterprise Tax Management Platform (ETMP) and Enterprise Operations (EOPS) Run and Associated Change Services as a sole supplier under a single lot. An archived Capgemini case study from 2012 [PDF] said the supplier designed and implemented ETMP as an SAP-based platform intended to support all customer-facing taxes. At the time, an HMRC spokesperson said it awarded the contract following "a rigorous procurement exercise" under "a competitive procedure." Capgemini's run continued. It won a contract worth up to £30 million in March 2022 to integrate HMRC's delayed customs platform with other systems. Later that month, HMRC awarded it a separate £214 million deal without competition to maintain legacy applications while they were decommissioned or modernized. In May 2024, HMRC awarded Capgemini another contract worth up to £245.5 million to keep legacy systems running. A separate five-year agreement to operate ETMP and EOPS until June 2029 was valued at between £403 million and £574 million. In June this year, HMRC chose Capgemini for a contact center deal worth up to £600 million. If it runs for the full ten years, the relationship will reach 2036 – 32 years after Aspire began. HMRC has also awarded Capgemini a £37 million contract to migrate ETMP, which the supplier already operates, from SAP's legacy ECC software to S/4HANA. Officials said HMRC took steps to ensure a fair and transparent procurement and a level playing field for all bidders. German software company SAP had already won the software deal for £275 million without competition. HMRC is also preparing to award a contract worth up to £500 million by June next year for an overhaul of its National Insurance and Pay-as-You-Earn (PAYE) systems. The systems were part of Aspire, and incumbent Accenture (US-founded, Ireland-based) has won £100 million in awards without competition to continue to support them. Burnham's procurement policy will therefore face an early test: whether overseas incumbents continue to secure lucrative work from one of the UK public sector's biggest technology buyers. ®

As the UK government promises to use public spending to back British business, research indicates that the tax collector has paid French tech giant Capgemini at least £4.2 billion since it began dismantling their flagship outsourcing arrangement. When Andy Burnham became Prime Minister in July, he said in his first speech that public procurement would "back British industry." The government later said businesses winning government contracts would need to show they were creating high-quality British jobs. However, the relationship between His Majesty's Revenue & Customs (HMRC) and Capgemini – which could ultimately span 32 years – shows the scale of that challenge. The worked with Otnox, which collects and standardizes public procurement data from more than 80 countries, to analyze HMRC's published transactions above £25,000. The records show that HMRC paid Capgemini at least £4.2 billion across 15,726 transactions between 2014 – when its Aspire contract with Capgemini was initially set to end – and July 2026. Sixteen months of data are missing from that period, so the true total may be higher. HMRC officials told The Reg the contract awards to Capgemini are fully compliant with UK procurement legislation and government policy. An HMRC spokesperson said: “While some strategic suppliers continue to play an important role in delivering critical services, we have moved from a small number of large legacy contracts to a more diverse supplier base. This has increased competition, innovation, and resilience in support of the government’s growth agenda.” Aspire began in 2004 as a ten-year contract with Capgemini as the prime supplier, but HMRC later extended it to June 2017. It became the government's largest technology contract, costing around £10 billion over 13 years. The arrangement, which also involved Fujitsu and Accenture, accounted for about 84 percent of HMRC's technology spending between April 2006 and March 2014. In 2016, the National Audit Office said Aspire provided stable but expensive IT systems. "The contract has contributed to HMRC's technology becoming out of date. HMRC is now replacing Aspire so that it can take greater control over how its IT is developed and provided," the spending watchdog said. "HMRC's commercial strategy is to work with more IT suppliers, including small and medium-sized enterprises. It will let shorter, more flexible contracts and avoid extending contracts wherever possible," the report added. When HMRC appeared before MPs in March 2015, it said it planned to replace Aspire in phases rather than extend it. Yet agreements announced in August 2015 and March 2016 kept some Aspire services running beyond the contract's June 2017 end date. Others were brought in-house or put out for fresh procurement, the NAO said. HM Treasury minutes published in November 2016 reflected the revised timetable. The tax collector said its "phased approach" to replacing Aspire services would take until 2020. "It is extending some Aspire services by a further three years..." it said, adding the plan to replace Aspire would produce annual savings of £200 million by 2020–21. In 2020, HMRC launched its Technology Sourcing Programme (TSP), promising to open its £900 million annual IT budget to a broader range of suppliers. The Cabinet Office later said that programme would produce £824.6 million in cash-releasing and non-cash releasing savings through IT modernization, including "supply chain control improvements and contract disaggregation." Capgemini nevertheless continued to win HMRC work, including contracts supporting systems it had built or operated under Aspire. Some were awarded without competition. In August this year, Capgemini won a £200 million, five-year contract to migrate and decommission HMRC's legacy data warehouses. In January 2022, Capgemini signed a £51 million agreement to continue supporting tax systems developed under Aspire. HMRC awarded Capgemini the three-year deal to support its Enterprise Tax Management Platform (ETMP) and Enterprise Operations (EOPS) Run and Associated Change Services as a sole supplier under a single lot. An archived Capgemini case study from 2012 [PDF] said the supplier designed and implemented ETMP as an SAP-based platform intended to support all customer-facing taxes. At the time, an HMRC spokesperson said it awarded the contract following "a rigorous procurement exercise" under "a competitive procedure." Capgemini's run continued. It won a contract worth up to £30 million in March 2022 to integrate HMRC's delayed customs platform with other systems. Later that month, HMRC awarded it a separate £214 million deal without competition to maintain legacy applications while they were decommissioned or modernized. In May 2024, HMRC awarded Capgemini another contract worth up to £245.5 million to keep legacy systems running. A separate five-year agreement to operate ETMP and EOPS until June 2029 was valued at between £403 million and £574 million. In June this year, HMRC chose Capgemini for a contact center deal worth up to £600 million. If it runs for the full ten years, the relationship will reach 2036 – 32 years after Aspire began. HMRC has also awarded Capgemini a £37 million contract to migrate ETMP, which the supplier already operates, from SAP's legacy ECC software to S/4HANA. Officials said HMRC took steps to ensure a fair and transparent procurement and a level playing field for all bidders. German software company SAP had already won the software deal for £275 million without competition. HMRC is also preparing to award a contract worth up to £500 million by June next year for an overhaul of its National Insurance and Pay-as-You-Earn (PAYE) systems. The systems were part of Aspire, and incumbent Accenture (US-founded, Ireland-based) has won £100 million in awards without competition to continue to support them. Burnham's procurement policy will therefore face an early test: whether overseas incumbents continue to secure lucrative work from one of the UK public sector's biggest technology buyers. ®

As the UK government promises to use public spending to back British business, research indicates that the tax collector has paid French tech giant Capgemini at least £4.2 billion since it began dismantling their flagship outsourcing arrangement. When Andy Burnham became Prime Minister in July, he said in his first speech that public procurement would "back British industry." The government later said businesses winning government contracts would need to show they were creating high-quality British jobs. However, the relationship between His Majesty's Revenue & Customs (HMRC) and Capgemini – which could ultimately span 32 years – shows the scale of that challenge. The worked with Otnox, which collects and standardizes public procurement data from more than 80 countries, to analyze HMRC's published transactions above £25,000. The records show that HMRC paid Capgemini at least £4.2 billion across 15,726 transactions between 2014 – when its Aspire contract with Capgemini was initially set to end – and July 2026. Sixteen months of data are missing from that period, so the true total may be higher. HMRC officials told The Reg the contract awards to Capgemini are fully compliant with UK procurement legislation and government policy. An HMRC spokesperson said: “While some strategic suppliers continue to play an important role in delivering critical services, we have moved from a small number of large legacy contracts to a more diverse supplier base. This has increased competition, innovation, and resilience in support of the government’s growth agenda.” Aspire began in 2004 as a ten-year contract with Capgemini as the prime supplier, but HMRC later extended it to June 2017. It became the government's largest technology contract, costing around £10 billion over 13 years. The arrangement, which also involved Fujitsu and Accenture, accounted for about 84 percent of HMRC's technology spending between April 2006 and March 2014. In 2016, the National Audit Office said Aspire provided stable but expensive IT systems. "The contract has contributed to HMRC's technology becoming out of date. HMRC is now replacing Aspire so that it can take greater control over how its IT is developed and provided," the spending watchdog said. "HMRC's commercial strategy is to work with more IT suppliers, including small and medium-sized enterprises. It will let shorter, more flexible contracts and avoid extending contracts wherever possible," the report added. When HMRC appeared before MPs in March 2015, it said it planned to replace Aspire in phases rather than extend it. Yet agreements announced in August 2015 and March 2016 kept some Aspire services running beyond the contract's June 2017 end date. Others were brought in-house or put out for fresh procurement, the NAO said. HM Treasury minutes published in November 2016 reflected the revised timetable. The tax collector said its "phased approach" to replacing Aspire services would take until 2020. "It is extending some Aspire services by a further three years..." it said, adding the plan to replace Aspire would produce annual savings of £200 million by 2020–21. In 2020, HMRC launched its Technology Sourcing Programme (TSP), promising to open its £900 million annual IT budget to a broader range of suppliers. The Cabinet Office later said that programme would produce £824.6 million in cash-releasing and non-cash releasing savings through IT modernization, including "supply chain control improvements and contract disaggregation." Capgemini nevertheless continued to win HMRC work, including contracts supporting systems it had built or operated under Aspire. Some were awarded without competition. In August this year, Capgemini won a £200 million, five-year contract to migrate and decommission HMRC's legacy data warehouses. In January 2022, Capgemini signed a £51 million agreement to continue supporting tax systems developed under Aspire. HMRC awarded Capgemini the three-year deal to support its Enterprise Tax Management Platform (ETMP) and Enterprise Operations (EOPS) Run and Associated Change Services as a sole supplier under a single lot. An archived Capgemini case study from 2012 [PDF] said the supplier designed and implemented ETMP as an SAP-based platform intended to support all customer-facing taxes. At the time, an HMRC spokesperson said it awarded the contract following "a rigorous procurement exercise" under "a competitive procedure." Capgemini's run continued. It won a contract worth up to £30 million in March 2022 to integrate HMRC's delayed customs platform with other systems. Later that month, HMRC awarded it a separate £214 million deal without competition to maintain legacy applications while they were decommissioned or modernized. In May 2024, HMRC awarded Capgemini another contract worth up to £245.5 million to keep legacy systems running. A separate five-year agreement to operate ETMP and EOPS until June 2029 was valued at between £403 million and £574 million. In June this year, HMRC chose Capgemini for a contact center deal worth up to £600 million. If it runs for the full ten years, the relationship will reach 2036 – 32 years after Aspire began. HMRC has also awarded Capgemini a £37 million contract to migrate ETMP, which the supplier already operates, from SAP's legacy ECC software to S/4HANA. Officials said HMRC took steps to ensure a fair and transparent procurement and a level playing field for all bidders. German software company SAP had already won the software deal for £275 million without competition. HMRC is also preparing to award a contract worth up to £500 million by June next year for an overhaul of its National Insurance and Pay-as-You-Earn (PAYE) systems. The systems were part of Aspire, and incumbent Accenture (US-founded, Ireland-based) has won £100 million in awards without competition to continue to support them. Burnham's procurement policy will therefore face an early test: whether overseas incumbents continue to secure lucrative work from one of the UK public sector's biggest technology buyers. ®

As the UK government promises to use public spending to back British business, research indicates that the tax collector has paid French tech giant Capgemini at least £4.2 billion since it began dismantling their flagship outsourcing arrangement. When Andy Burnham became Prime Minister in July, he said in his first speech that public procurement would "back British industry." The government later said businesses winning government contracts would need to show they were creating high-quality British jobs. However, the relationship between His Majesty's Revenue & Customs (HMRC) and Capgemini – which could ultimately span 32 years – shows the scale of that challenge. The worked with Otnox, which collects and standardizes public procurement data from more than 80 countries, to analyze HMRC's published transactions above £25,000. The records show that HMRC paid Capgemini at least £4.2 billion across 15,726 transactions between 2014 – when its Aspire contract with Capgemini was initially set to end – and July 2026. Sixteen months of data are missing from that period, so the true total may be higher. HMRC officials told The Reg the contract awards to Capgemini are fully compliant with UK procurement legislation and government policy. An HMRC spokesperson said: “While some strategic suppliers continue to play an important role in delivering critical services, we have moved from a small number of large legacy contracts to a more diverse supplier base. This has increased competition, innovation, and resilience in support of the government’s growth agenda.” Aspire began in 2004 as a ten-year contract with Capgemini as the prime supplier, but HMRC later extended it to June 2017. It became the government's largest technology contract, costing around £10 billion over 13 years. The arrangement, which also involved Fujitsu and Accenture, accounted for about 84 percent of HMRC's technology spending between April 2006 and March 2014. In 2016, the National Audit Office said Aspire provided stable but expensive IT systems. "The contract has contributed to HMRC's technology becoming out of date. HMRC is now replacing Aspire so that it can take greater control over how its IT is developed and provided," the spending watchdog said. "HMRC's commercial strategy is to work with more IT suppliers, including small and medium-sized enterprises. It will let shorter, more flexible contracts and avoid extending contracts wherever possible," the report added. When HMRC appeared before MPs in March 2015, it said it planned to replace Aspire in phases rather than extend it. Yet agreements announced in August 2015 and March 2016 kept some Aspire services running beyond the contract's June 2017 end date. Others were brought in-house or put out for fresh procurement, the NAO said. HM Treasury minutes published in November 2016 reflected the revised timetable. The tax collector said its "phased approach" to replacing Aspire services would take until 2020. "It is extending some Aspire services by a further three years..." it said, adding the plan to replace Aspire would produce annual savings of £200 million by 2020–21. In 2020, HMRC launched its Technology Sourcing Programme (TSP), promising to open its £900 million annual IT budget to a broader range of suppliers. The Cabinet Office later said that programme would produce £824.6 million in cash-releasing and non-cash releasing savings through IT modernization, including "supply chain control improvements and contract disaggregation." Capgemini nevertheless continued to win HMRC work, including contracts supporting systems it had built or operated under Aspire. Some were awarded without competition. In August this year, Capgemini won a £200 million, five-year contract to migrate and decommission HMRC's legacy data warehouses. In January 2022, Capgemini signed a £51 million agreement to continue supporting tax systems developed under Aspire. HMRC awarded Capgemini the three-year deal to support its Enterprise Tax Management Platform (ETMP) and Enterprise Operations (EOPS) Run and Associated Change Services as a sole supplier under a single lot. An archived Capgemini case study from 2012 [PDF] said the supplier designed and implemented ETMP as an SAP-based platform intended to support all customer-facing taxes. At the time, an HMRC spokesperson said it awarded the contract following "a rigorous procurement exercise" under "a competitive procedure." Capgemini's run continued. It won a contract worth up to £30 million in March 2022 to integrate HMRC's delayed customs platform with other systems. Later that month, HMRC awarded it a separate £214 million deal without competition to maintain legacy applications while they were decommissioned or modernized. In May 2024, HMRC awarded Capgemini another contract worth up to £245.5 million to keep legacy systems running. A separate five-year agreement to operate ETMP and EOPS until June 2029 was valued at between £403 million and £574 million. In June this year, HMRC chose Capgemini for a contact center deal worth up to £600 million. If it runs for the full ten years, the relationship will reach 2036 – 32 years after Aspire began. HMRC has also awarded Capgemini a £37 million contract to migrate ETMP, which the supplier already operates, from SAP's legacy ECC software to S/4HANA. Officials said HMRC took steps to ensure a fair and transparent procurement and a level playing field for all bidders. German software company SAP had already won the software deal for £275 million without competition. HMRC is also preparing to award a contract worth up to £500 million by June next year for an overhaul of its National Insurance and Pay-as-You-Earn (PAYE) systems. The systems were part of Aspire, and incumbent Accenture (US-founded, Ireland-based) has won £100 million in awards without competition to continue to support them. Burnham's procurement policy will therefore face an early test: whether overseas incumbents continue to secure lucrative work from one of the UK public sector's biggest technology buyers. ®

As the UK government promises to use public spending to back British business, research indicates that the tax collector has paid French tech giant Capgemini at least £4.2 billion since it began dismantling their flagship outsourcing arrangement. When Andy Burnham became Prime Minister in July, he said in his first speech that public procurement would "back British industry." The government later said businesses winning government contracts would need to show they were creating high-quality British jobs. However, the relationship between His Majesty's Revenue & Customs (HMRC) and Capgemini – which could ultimately span 32 years – shows the scale of that challenge. The worked with Otnox, which collects and standardizes public procurement data from more than 80 countries, to analyze HMRC's published transactions above £25,000. The records show that HMRC paid Capgemini at least £4.2 billion across 15,726 transactions between 2014 – when its Aspire contract with Capgemini was initially set to end – and July 2026. Sixteen months of data are missing from that period, so the true total may be higher. HMRC officials told The Reg the contract awards to Capgemini are fully compliant with UK procurement legislation and government policy. An HMRC spokesperson said: “While some strategic suppliers continue to play an important role in delivering critical services, we have moved from a small number of large legacy contracts to a more diverse supplier base. This has increased competition, innovation, and resilience in support of the government’s growth agenda.” Aspire began in 2004 as a ten-year contract with Capgemini as the prime supplier, but HMRC later extended it to June 2017. It became the government's largest technology contract, costing around £10 billion over 13 years. The arrangement, which also involved Fujitsu and Accenture, accounted for about 84 percent of HMRC's technology spending between April 2006 and March 2014. In 2016, the National Audit Office said Aspire provided stable but expensive IT systems. "The contract has contributed to HMRC's technology becoming out of date. HMRC is now replacing Aspire so that it can take greater control over how its IT is developed and provided," the spending watchdog said. "HMRC's commercial strategy is to work with more IT suppliers, including small and medium-sized enterprises. It will let shorter, more flexible contracts and avoid extending contracts wherever possible," the report added. When HMRC appeared before MPs in March 2015, it said it planned to replace Aspire in phases rather than extend it. Yet agreements announced in August 2015 and March 2016 kept some Aspire services running beyond the contract's June 2017 end date. Others were brought in-house or put out for fresh procurement, the NAO said. HM Treasury minutes published in November 2016 reflected the revised timetable. The tax collector said its "phased approach" to replacing Aspire services would take until 2020. "It is extending some Aspire services by a further three years..." it said, adding the plan to replace Aspire would produce annual savings of £200 million by 2020–21. In 2020, HMRC launched its Technology Sourcing Programme (TSP), promising to open its £900 million annual IT budget to a broader range of suppliers. The Cabinet Office later said that programme would produce £824.6 million in cash-releasing and non-cash releasing savings through IT modernization, including "supply chain control improvements and contract disaggregation." Capgemini nevertheless continued to win HMRC work, including contracts supporting systems it had built or operated under Aspire. Some were awarded without competition. In August this year, Capgemini won a £200 million, five-year contract to migrate and decommission HMRC's legacy data warehouses. In January 2022, Capgemini signed a £51 million agreement to continue supporting tax systems developed under Aspire. HMRC awarded Capgemini the three-year deal to support its Enterprise Tax Management Platform (ETMP) and Enterprise Operations (EOPS) Run and Associated Change Services as a sole supplier under a single lot. An archived Capgemini case study from 2012 [PDF] said the supplier designed and implemented ETMP as an SAP-based platform intended to support all customer-facing taxes. At the time, an HMRC spokesperson said it awarded the contract following "a rigorous procurement exercise" under "a competitive procedure." Capgemini's run continued. It won a contract worth up to £30 million in March 2022 to integrate HMRC's delayed customs platform with other systems. Later that month, HMRC awarded it a separate £214 million deal without competition to maintain legacy applications while they were decommissioned or modernized. In May 2024, HMRC awarded Capgemini another contract worth up to £245.5 million to keep legacy systems running. A separate five-year agreement to operate ETMP and EOPS until June 2029 was valued at between £403 million and £574 million. In June this year, HMRC chose Capgemini for a contact center deal worth up to £600 million. If it runs for the full ten years, the relationship will reach 2036 – 32 years after Aspire began. HMRC has also awarded Capgemini a £37 million contract to migrate ETMP, which the supplier already operates, from SAP's legacy ECC software to S/4HANA. Officials said HMRC took steps to ensure a fair and transparent procurement and a level playing field for all bidders. German software company SAP had already won the software deal for £275 million without competition. HMRC is also preparing to award a contract worth up to £500 million by June next year for an overhaul of its National Insurance and Pay-as-You-Earn (PAYE) systems. The systems were part of Aspire, and incumbent Accenture (US-founded, Ireland-based) has won £100 million in awards without competition to continue to support them. Burnham's procurement policy will therefore face an early test: whether overseas incumbents continue to secure lucrative work from one of the UK public sector's biggest technology buyers. ®

As the UK government promises to use public spending to back British business, research indicates that the tax collector has paid French tech giant Capgemini at least £4.2 billion since it began dismantling their flagship outsourcing arrangement. When Andy Burnham became Prime Minister in July, he said in his first speech that public procurement would "back British industry." The government later said businesses winning government contracts would need to show they were creating high-quality British jobs. However, the relationship between His Majesty's Revenue & Customs (HMRC) and Capgemini – which could ultimately span 32 years – shows the scale of that challenge. The worked with Otnox, which collects and standardizes public procurement data from more than 80 countries, to analyze HMRC's published transactions above £25,000. The records show that HMRC paid Capgemini at least £4.2 billion across 15,726 transactions between 2014 – when its Aspire contract with Capgemini was initially set to end – and July 2026. Sixteen months of data are missing from that period, so the true total may be higher. HMRC officials told The Reg the contract awards to Capgemini are fully compliant with UK procurement legislation and government policy. An HMRC spokesperson said: “While some strategic suppliers continue to play an important role in delivering critical services, we have moved from a small number of large legacy contracts to a more diverse supplier base. This has increased competition, innovation, and resilience in support of the government’s growth agenda.” Aspire began in 2004 as a ten-year contract with Capgemini as the prime supplier, but HMRC later extended it to June 2017. It became the government's largest technology contract, costing around £10 billion over 13 years. The arrangement, which also involved Fujitsu and Accenture, accounted for about 84 percent of HMRC's technology spending between April 2006 and March 2014. In 2016, the National Audit Office said Aspire provided stable but expensive IT systems. "The contract has contributed to HMRC's technology becoming out of date. HMRC is now replacing Aspire so that it can take greater control over how its IT is developed and provided," the spending watchdog said. "HMRC's commercial strategy is to work with more IT suppliers, including small and medium-sized enterprises. It will let shorter, more flexible contracts and avoid extending contracts wherever possible," the report added. When HMRC appeared before MPs in March 2015, it said it planned to replace Aspire in phases rather than extend it. Yet agreements announced in August 2015 and March 2016 kept some Aspire services running beyond the contract's June 2017 end date. Others were brought in-house or put out for fresh procurement, the NAO said. HM Treasury minutes published in November 2016 reflected the revised timetable. The tax collector said its "phased approach" to replacing Aspire services would take until 2020. "It is extending some Aspire services by a further three years..." it said, adding the plan to replace Aspire would produce annual savings of £200 million by 2020–21. In 2020, HMRC launched its Technology Sourcing Programme (TSP), promising to open its £900 million annual IT budget to a broader range of suppliers. The Cabinet Office later said that programme would produce £824.6 million in cash-releasing and non-cash releasing savings through IT modernization, including "supply chain control improvements and contract disaggregation." Capgemini nevertheless continued to win HMRC work, including contracts supporting systems it had built or operated under Aspire. Some were awarded without competition. In August this year, Capgemini won a £200 million, five-year contract to migrate and decommission HMRC's legacy data warehouses. In January 2022, Capgemini signed a £51 million agreement to continue supporting tax systems developed under Aspire. HMRC awarded Capgemini the three-year deal to support its Enterprise Tax Management Platform (ETMP) and Enterprise Operations (EOPS) Run and Associated Change Services as a sole supplier under a single lot. An archived Capgemini case study from 2012 [PDF] said the supplier designed and implemented ETMP as an SAP-based platform intended to support all customer-facing taxes. At the time, an HMRC spokesperson said it awarded the contract following "a rigorous procurement exercise" under "a competitive procedure." Capgemini's run continued. It won a contract worth up to £30 million in March 2022 to integrate HMRC's delayed customs platform with other systems. Later that month, HMRC awarded it a separate £214 million deal without competition to maintain legacy applications while they were decommissioned or modernized. In May 2024, HMRC awarded Capgemini another contract worth up to £245.5 million to keep legacy systems running. A separate five-year agreement to operate ETMP and EOPS until June 2029 was valued at between £403 million and £574 million. In June this year, HMRC chose Capgemini for a contact center deal worth up to £600 million. If it runs for the full ten years, the relationship will reach 2036 – 32 years after Aspire began. HMRC has also awarded Capgemini a £37 million contract to migrate ETMP, which the supplier already operates, from SAP's legacy ECC software to S/4HANA. Officials said HMRC took steps to ensure a fair and transparent procurement and a level playing field for all bidders. German software company SAP had already won the software deal for £275 million without competition. HMRC is also preparing to award a contract worth up to £500 million by June next year for an overhaul of its National Insurance and Pay-as-You-Earn (PAYE) systems. The systems were part of Aspire, and incumbent Accenture (US-founded, Ireland-based) has won £100 million in awards without competition to continue to support them. Burnham's procurement policy will therefore face an early test: whether overseas incumbents continue to secure lucrative work from one of the UK public sector's biggest technology buyers. ®

As the UK government promises to use public spending to back British business, research indicates that the tax collector has paid French tech giant Capgemini at least £4.2 billion since it began dismantling their flagship outsourcing arrangement. When Andy Burnham became Prime Minister in July, he said in his first speech that public procurement would "back British industry." The government later said businesses winning government contracts would need to show they were creating high-quality British jobs. However, the relationship between His Majesty's Revenue & Customs (HMRC) and Capgemini – which could ultimately span 32 years – shows the scale of that challenge. The worked with Otnox, which collects and standardizes public procurement data from more than 80 countries, to analyze HMRC's published transactions above £25,000. The records show that HMRC paid Capgemini at least £4.2 billion across 15,726 transactions between 2014 – when its Aspire contract with Capgemini was initially set to end – and July 2026. Sixteen months of data are missing from that period, so the true total may be higher. HMRC officials told The Reg the contract awards to Capgemini are fully compliant with UK procurement legislation and government policy. An HMRC spokesperson said: “While some strategic suppliers continue to play an important role in delivering critical services, we have moved from a small number of large legacy contracts to a more diverse supplier base. This has increased competition, innovation, and resilience in support of the government’s growth agenda.” Aspire began in 2004 as a ten-year contract with Capgemini as the prime supplier, but HMRC later extended it to June 2017. It became the government's largest technology contract, costing around £10 billion over 13 years. The arrangement, which also involved Fujitsu and Accenture, accounted for about 84 percent of HMRC's technology spending between April 2006 and March 2014. In 2016, the National Audit Office said Aspire provided stable but expensive IT systems. "The contract has contributed to HMRC's technology becoming out of date. HMRC is now replacing Aspire so that it can take greater control over how its IT is developed and provided," the spending watchdog said. "HMRC's commercial strategy is to work with more IT suppliers, including small and medium-sized enterprises. It will let shorter, more flexible contracts and avoid extending contracts wherever possible," the report added. When HMRC appeared before MPs in March 2015, it said it planned to replace Aspire in phases rather than extend it. Yet agreements announced in August 2015 and March 2016 kept some Aspire services running beyond the contract's June 2017 end date. Others were brought in-house or put out for fresh procurement, the NAO said. HM Treasury minutes published in November 2016 reflected the revised timetable. The tax collector said its "phased approach" to replacing Aspire services would take until 2020. "It is extending some Aspire services by a further three years..." it said, adding the plan to replace Aspire would produce annual savings of £200 million by 2020–21. In 2020, HMRC launched its Technology Sourcing Programme (TSP), promising to open its £900 million annual IT budget to a broader range of suppliers. The Cabinet Office later said that programme would produce £824.6 million in cash-releasing and non-cash releasing savings through IT modernization, including "supply chain control improvements and contract disaggregation." Capgemini nevertheless continued to win HMRC work, including contracts supporting systems it had built or operated under Aspire. Some were awarded without competition. In August this year, Capgemini won a £200 million, five-year contract to migrate and decommission HMRC's legacy data warehouses. In January 2022, Capgemini signed a £51 million agreement to continue supporting tax systems developed under Aspire. HMRC awarded Capgemini the three-year deal to support its Enterprise Tax Management Platform (ETMP) and Enterprise Operations (EOPS) Run and Associated Change Services as a sole supplier under a single lot. An archived Capgemini case study from 2012 [PDF] said the supplier designed and implemented ETMP as an SAP-based platform intended to support all customer-facing taxes. At the time, an HMRC spokesperson said it awarded the contract following "a rigorous procurement exercise" under "a competitive procedure." Capgemini's run continued. It won a contract worth up to £30 million in March 2022 to integrate HMRC's delayed customs platform with other systems. Later that month, HMRC awarded it a separate £214 million deal without competition to maintain legacy applications while they were decommissioned or modernized. In May 2024, HMRC awarded Capgemini another contract worth up to £245.5 million to keep legacy systems running. A separate five-year agreement to operate ETMP and EOPS until June 2029 was valued at between £403 million and £574 million. In June this year, HMRC chose Capgemini for a contact center deal worth up to £600 million. If it runs for the full ten years, the relationship will reach 2036 – 32 years after Aspire began. HMRC has also awarded Capgemini a £37 million contract to migrate ETMP, which the supplier already operates, from SAP's legacy ECC software to S/4HANA. Officials said HMRC took steps to ensure a fair and transparent procurement and a level playing field for all bidders. German software company SAP had already won the software deal for £275 million without competition. HMRC is also preparing to award a contract worth up to £500 million by June next year for an overhaul of its National Insurance and Pay-as-You-Earn (PAYE) systems. The systems were part of Aspire, and incumbent Accenture (US-founded, Ireland-based) has won £100 million in awards without competition to continue to support them. Burnham's procurement policy will therefore face an early test: whether overseas incumbents continue to secure lucrative work from one of the UK public sector's biggest technology buyers. ®

As the UK government promises to use public spending to back British business, research indicates that the tax collector has paid French tech giant Capgemini at least £4.2 billion since it began dismantling their flagship outsourcing arrangement. When Andy Burnham became Prime Minister in July, he said in his first speech that public procurement would "back British industry." The government later said businesses winning government contracts would need to show they were creating high-quality British jobs. However, the relationship between His Majesty's Revenue & Customs (HMRC) and Capgemini – which could ultimately span 32 years – shows the scale of that challenge. The worked with Otnox, which collects and standardizes public procurement data from more than 80 countries, to analyze HMRC's published transactions above £25,000. The records show that HMRC paid Capgemini at least £4.2 billion across 15,726 transactions between 2014 – when its Aspire contract with Capgemini was initially set to end – and July 2026. Sixteen months of data are missing from that period, so the true total may be higher. HMRC officials told The Reg the contract awards to Capgemini are fully compliant with UK procurement legislation and government policy. An HMRC spokesperson said: “While some strategic suppliers continue to play an important role in delivering critical services, we have moved from a small number of large legacy contracts to a more diverse supplier base. This has increased competition, innovation, and resilience in support of the government’s growth agenda.” Aspire began in 2004 as a ten-year contract with Capgemini as the prime supplier, but HMRC later extended it to June 2017. It became the government's largest technology contract, costing around £10 billion over 13 years. The arrangement, which also involved Fujitsu and Accenture, accounted for about 84 percent of HMRC's technology spending between April 2006 and March 2014. In 2016, the National Audit Office said Aspire provided stable but expensive IT systems. "The contract has contributed to HMRC's technology becoming out of date. HMRC is now replacing Aspire so that it can take greater control over how its IT is developed and provided," the spending watchdog said. "HMRC's commercial strategy is to work with more IT suppliers, including small and medium-sized enterprises. It will let shorter, more flexible contracts and avoid extending contracts wherever possible," the report added. When HMRC appeared before MPs in March 2015, it said it planned to replace Aspire in phases rather than extend it. Yet agreements announced in August 2015 and March 2016 kept some Aspire services running beyond the contract's June 2017 end date. Others were brought in-house or put out for fresh procurement, the NAO said. HM Treasury minutes published in November 2016 reflected the revised timetable. The tax collector said its "phased approach" to replacing Aspire services would take until 2020. "It is extending some Aspire services by a further three years..." it said, adding the plan to replace Aspire would produce annual savings of £200 million by 2020–21. In 2020, HMRC launched its Technology Sourcing Programme (TSP), promising to open its £900 million annual IT budget to a broader range of suppliers. The Cabinet Office later said that programme would produce £824.6 million in cash-releasing and non-cash releasing savings through IT modernization, including "supply chain control improvements and contract disaggregation." Capgemini nevertheless continued to win HMRC work, including contracts supporting systems it had built or operated under Aspire. Some were awarded without competition. In August this year, Capgemini won a £200 million, five-year contract to migrate and decommission HMRC's legacy data warehouses. In January 2022, Capgemini signed a £51 million agreement to continue supporting tax systems developed under Aspire. HMRC awarded Capgemini the three-year deal to support its Enterprise Tax Management Platform (ETMP) and Enterprise Operations (EOPS) Run and Associated Change Services as a sole supplier under a single lot. An archived Capgemini case study from 2012 [PDF] said the supplier designed and implemented ETMP as an SAP-based platform intended to support all customer-facing taxes. At the time, an HMRC spokesperson said it awarded the contract following "a rigorous procurement exercise" under "a competitive procedure." Capgemini's run continued. It won a contract worth up to £30 million in March 2022 to integrate HMRC's delayed customs platform with other systems. Later that month, HMRC awarded it a separate £214 million deal without competition to maintain legacy applications while they were decommissioned or modernized. In May 2024, HMRC awarded Capgemini another contract worth up to £245.5 million to keep legacy systems running. A separate five-year agreement to operate ETMP and EOPS until June 2029 was valued at between £403 million and £574 million. In June this year, HMRC chose Capgemini for a contact center deal worth up to £600 million. If it runs for the full ten years, the relationship will reach 2036 – 32 years after Aspire began. HMRC has also awarded Capgemini a £37 million contract to migrate ETMP, which the supplier already operates, from SAP's legacy ECC software to S/4HANA. Officials said HMRC took steps to ensure a fair and transparent procurement and a level playing field for all bidders. German software company SAP had already won the software deal for £275 million without competition. HMRC is also preparing to award a contract worth up to £500 million by June next year for an overhaul of its National Insurance and Pay-as-You-Earn (PAYE) systems. The systems were part of Aspire, and incumbent Accenture (US-founded, Ireland-based) has won £100 million in awards without competition to continue to support them. Burnham's procurement policy will therefore face an early test: whether overseas incumbents continue to secure lucrative work from one of the UK public sector's biggest technology buyers. ®

As the UK government promises to use public spending to back British business, research indicates that the tax collector has paid French tech giant Capgemini at least £4.2 billion since it began dismantling their flagship outsourcing arrangement. When Andy Burnham became Prime Minister in July, he said in his first speech that public procurement would "back British industry." The government later said businesses winning government contracts would need to show they were creating high-quality British jobs. However, the relationship between His Majesty's Revenue & Customs (HMRC) and Capgemini – which could ultimately span 32 years – shows the scale of that challenge. The worked with Otnox, which collects and standardizes public procurement data from more than 80 countries, to analyze HMRC's published transactions above £25,000. The records show that HMRC paid Capgemini at least £4.2 billion across 15,726 transactions between 2014 – when its Aspire contract with Capgemini was initially set to end – and July 2026. Sixteen months of data are missing from that period, so the true total may be higher. HMRC officials told The Reg the contract awards to Capgemini are fully compliant with UK procurement legislation and government policy. An HMRC spokesperson said: “While some strategic suppliers continue to play an important role in delivering critical services, we have moved from a small number of large legacy contracts to a more diverse supplier base. This has increased competition, innovation, and resilience in support of the government’s growth agenda.” Aspire began in 2004 as a ten-year contract with Capgemini as the prime supplier, but HMRC later extended it to June 2017. It became the government's largest technology contract, costing around £10 billion over 13 years. The arrangement, which also involved Fujitsu and Accenture, accounted for about 84 percent of HMRC's technology spending between April 2006 and March 2014. In 2016, the National Audit Office said Aspire provided stable but expensive IT systems. "The contract has contributed to HMRC's technology becoming out of date. HMRC is now replacing Aspire so that it can take greater control over how its IT is developed and provided," the spending watchdog said. "HMRC's commercial strategy is to work with more IT suppliers, including small and medium-sized enterprises. It will let shorter, more flexible contracts and avoid extending contracts wherever possible," the report added. When HMRC appeared before MPs in March 2015, it said it planned to replace Aspire in phases rather than extend it. Yet agreements announced in August 2015 and March 2016 kept some Aspire services running beyond the contract's June 2017 end date. Others were brought in-house or put out for fresh procurement, the NAO said. HM Treasury minutes published in November 2016 reflected the revised timetable. The tax collector said its "phased approach" to replacing Aspire services would take until 2020. "It is extending some Aspire services by a further three years..." it said, adding the plan to replace Aspire would produce annual savings of £200 million by 2020–21. In 2020, HMRC launched its Technology Sourcing Programme (TSP), promising to open its £900 million annual IT budget to a broader range of suppliers. The Cabinet Office later said that programme would produce £824.6 million in cash-releasing and non-cash releasing savings through IT modernization, including "supply chain control improvements and contract disaggregation." Capgemini nevertheless continued to win HMRC work, including contracts supporting systems it had built or operated under Aspire. Some were awarded without competition. In August this year, Capgemini won a £200 million, five-year contract to migrate and decommission HMRC's legacy data warehouses. In January 2022, Capgemini signed a £51 million agreement to continue supporting tax systems developed under Aspire. HMRC awarded Capgemini the three-year deal to support its Enterprise Tax Management Platform (ETMP) and Enterprise Operations (EOPS) Run and Associated Change Services as a sole supplier under a single lot. An archived Capgemini case study from 2012 [PDF] said the supplier designed and implemented ETMP as an SAP-based platform intended to support all customer-facing taxes. At the time, an HMRC spokesperson said it awarded the contract following "a rigorous procurement exercise" under "a competitive procedure." Capgemini's run continued. It won a contract worth up to £30 million in March 2022 to integrate HMRC's delayed customs platform with other systems. Later that month, HMRC awarded it a separate £214 million deal without competition to maintain legacy applications while they were decommissioned or modernized. In May 2024, HMRC awarded Capgemini another contract worth up to £245.5 million to keep legacy systems running. A separate five-year agreement to operate ETMP and EOPS until June 2029 was valued at between £403 million and £574 million. In June this year, HMRC chose Capgemini for a contact center deal worth up to £600 million. If it runs for the full ten years, the relationship will reach 2036 – 32 years after Aspire began. HMRC has also awarded Capgemini a £37 million contract to migrate ETMP, which the supplier already operates, from SAP's legacy ECC software to S/4HANA. Officials said HMRC took steps to ensure a fair and transparent procurement and a level playing field for all bidders. German software company SAP had already won the software deal for £275 million without competition. HMRC is also preparing to award a contract worth up to £500 million by June next year for an overhaul of its National Insurance and Pay-as-You-Earn (PAYE) systems. The systems were part of Aspire, and incumbent Accenture (US-founded, Ireland-based) has won £100 million in awards without competition to continue to support them. Burnham's procurement policy will therefore face an early test: whether overseas incumbents continue to secure lucrative work from one of the UK public sector's biggest technology buyers. ®

As the UK government promises to use public spending to back British business, research indicates that the tax collector has paid French tech giant Capgemini at least £4.2 billion since it began dismantling their flagship outsourcing arrangement. When Andy Burnham became Prime Minister in July, he said in his first speech that public procurement would "back British industry." The government later said businesses winning government contracts would need to show they were creating high-quality British jobs. However, the relationship between His Majesty's Revenue & Customs (HMRC) and Capgemini – which could ultimately span 32 years – shows the scale of that challenge. The worked with Otnox, which collects and standardizes public procurement data from more than 80 countries, to analyze HMRC's published transactions above £25,000. The records show that HMRC paid Capgemini at least £4.2 billion across 15,726 transactions between 2014 – when its Aspire contract with Capgemini was initially set to end – and July 2026. Sixteen months of data are missing from that period, so the true total may be higher. HMRC officials told The Reg the contract awards to Capgemini are fully compliant with UK procurement legislation and government policy. An HMRC spokesperson said: “While some strategic suppliers continue to play an important role in delivering critical services, we have moved from a small number of large legacy contracts to a more diverse supplier base. This has increased competition, innovation, and resilience in support of the government’s growth agenda.” Aspire began in 2004 as a ten-year contract with Capgemini as the prime supplier, but HMRC later extended it to June 2017. It became the government's largest technology contract, costing around £10 billion over 13 years. The arrangement, which also involved Fujitsu and Accenture, accounted for about 84 percent of HMRC's technology spending between April 2006 and March 2014. In 2016, the National Audit Office said Aspire provided stable but expensive IT systems. "The contract has contributed to HMRC's technology becoming out of date. HMRC is now replacing Aspire so that it can take greater control over how its IT is developed and provided," the spending watchdog said. "HMRC's commercial strategy is to work with more IT suppliers, including small and medium-sized enterprises. It will let shorter, more flexible contracts and avoid extending contracts wherever possible," the report added. When HMRC appeared before MPs in March 2015, it said it planned to replace Aspire in phases rather than extend it. Yet agreements announced in August 2015 and March 2016 kept some Aspire services running beyond the contract's June 2017 end date. Others were brought in-house or put out for fresh procurement, the NAO said. HM Treasury minutes published in November 2016 reflected the revised timetable. The tax collector said its "phased approach" to replacing Aspire services would take until 2020. "It is extending some Aspire services by a further three years..." it said, adding the plan to replace Aspire would produce annual savings of £200 million by 2020–21. In 2020, HMRC launched its Technology Sourcing Programme (TSP), promising to open its £900 million annual IT budget to a broader range of suppliers. The Cabinet Office later said that programme would produce £824.6 million in cash-releasing and non-cash releasing savings through IT modernization, including "supply chain control improvements and contract disaggregation." Capgemini nevertheless continued to win HMRC work, including contracts supporting systems it had built or operated under Aspire. Some were awarded without competition. In August this year, Capgemini won a £200 million, five-year contract to migrate and decommission HMRC's legacy data warehouses. In January 2022, Capgemini signed a £51 million agreement to continue supporting tax systems developed under Aspire. HMRC awarded Capgemini the three-year deal to support its Enterprise Tax Management Platform (ETMP) and Enterprise Operations (EOPS) Run and Associated Change Services as a sole supplier under a single lot. An archived Capgemini case study from 2012 [PDF] said the supplier designed and implemented ETMP as an SAP-based platform intended to support all customer-facing taxes. At the time, an HMRC spokesperson said it awarded the contract following "a rigorous procurement exercise" under "a competitive procedure." Capgemini's run continued. It won a contract worth up to £30 million in March 2022 to integrate HMRC's delayed customs platform with other systems. Later that month, HMRC awarded it a separate £214 million deal without competition to maintain legacy applications while they were decommissioned or modernized. In May 2024, HMRC awarded Capgemini another contract worth up to £245.5 million to keep legacy systems running. A separate five-year agreement to operate ETMP and EOPS until June 2029 was valued at between £403 million and £574 million. In June this year, HMRC chose Capgemini for a contact center deal worth up to £600 million. If it runs for the full ten years, the relationship will reach 2036 – 32 years after Aspire began. HMRC has also awarded Capgemini a £37 million contract to migrate ETMP, which the supplier already operates, from SAP's legacy ECC software to S/4HANA. Officials said HMRC took steps to ensure a fair and transparent procurement and a level playing field for all bidders. German software company SAP had already won the software deal for £275 million without competition. HMRC is also preparing to award a contract worth up to £500 million by June next year for an overhaul of its National Insurance and Pay-as-You-Earn (PAYE) systems. The systems were part of Aspire, and incumbent Accenture (US-founded, Ireland-based) has won £100 million in awards without competition to continue to support them. Burnham's procurement policy will therefore face an early test: whether overseas incumbents continue to secure lucrative work from one of the UK public sector's biggest technology buyers. ®

As the UK government promises to use public spending to back British business, research indicates that the tax collector has paid French tech giant Capgemini at least £4.2 billion since it began dismantling their flagship outsourcing arrangement. When Andy Burnham became Prime Minister in July, he said in his first speech that public procurement would "back British industry." The government later said businesses winning government contracts would need to show they were creating high-quality British jobs. However, the relationship between His Majesty's Revenue & Customs (HMRC) and Capgemini – which could ultimately span 32 years – shows the scale of that challenge. The worked with Otnox, which collects and standardizes public procurement data from more than 80 countries, to analyze HMRC's published transactions above £25,000. The records show that HMRC paid Capgemini at least £4.2 billion across 15,726 transactions between 2014 – when its Aspire contract with Capgemini was initially set to end – and July 2026. Sixteen months of data are missing from that period, so the true total may be higher. HMRC officials told The Reg the contract awards to Capgemini are fully compliant with UK procurement legislation and government policy. An HMRC spokesperson said: “While some strategic suppliers continue to play an important role in delivering critical services, we have moved from a small number of large legacy contracts to a more diverse supplier base. This has increased competition, innovation, and resilience in support of the government’s growth agenda.” Aspire began in 2004 as a ten-year contract with Capgemini as the prime supplier, but HMRC later extended it to June 2017. It became the government's largest technology contract, costing around £10 billion over 13 years. The arrangement, which also involved Fujitsu and Accenture, accounted for about 84 percent of HMRC's technology spending between April 2006 and March 2014. In 2016, the National Audit Office said Aspire provided stable but expensive IT systems. "The contract has contributed to HMRC's technology becoming out of date. HMRC is now replacing Aspire so that it can take greater control over how its IT is developed and provided," the spending watchdog said. "HMRC's commercial strategy is to work with more IT suppliers, including small and medium-sized enterprises. It will let shorter, more flexible contracts and avoid extending contracts wherever possible," the report added. When HMRC appeared before MPs in March 2015, it said it planned to replace Aspire in phases rather than extend it. Yet agreements announced in August 2015 and March 2016 kept some Aspire services running beyond the contract's June 2017 end date. Others were brought in-house or put out for fresh procurement, the NAO said. HM Treasury minutes published in November 2016 reflected the revised timetable. The tax collector said its "phased approach" to replacing Aspire services would take until 2020. "It is extending some Aspire services by a further three years..." it said, adding the plan to replace Aspire would produce annual savings of £200 million by 2020–21. In 2020, HMRC launched its Technology Sourcing Programme (TSP), promising to open its £900 million annual IT budget to a broader range of suppliers. The Cabinet Office later said that programme would produce £824.6 million in cash-releasing and non-cash releasing savings through IT modernization, including "supply chain control improvements and contract disaggregation." Capgemini nevertheless continued to win HMRC work, including contracts supporting systems it had built or operated under Aspire. Some were awarded without competition. In August this year, Capgemini won a £200 million, five-year contract to migrate and decommission HMRC's legacy data warehouses. In January 2022, Capgemini signed a £51 million agreement to continue supporting tax systems developed under Aspire. HMRC awarded Capgemini the three-year deal to support its Enterprise Tax Management Platform (ETMP) and Enterprise Operations (EOPS) Run and Associated Change Services as a sole supplier under a single lot. An archived Capgemini case study from 2012 [PDF] said the supplier designed and implemented ETMP as an SAP-based platform intended to support all customer-facing taxes. At the time, an HMRC spokesperson said it awarded the contract following "a rigorous procurement exercise" under "a competitive procedure." Capgemini's run continued. It won a contract worth up to £30 million in March 2022 to integrate HMRC's delayed customs platform with other systems. Later that month, HMRC awarded it a separate £214 million deal without competition to maintain legacy applications while they were decommissioned or modernized. In May 2024, HMRC awarded Capgemini another contract worth up to £245.5 million to keep legacy systems running. A separate five-year agreement to operate ETMP and EOPS until June 2029 was valued at between £403 million and £574 million. In June this year, HMRC chose Capgemini for a contact center deal worth up to £600 million. If it runs for the full ten years, the relationship will reach 2036 – 32 years after Aspire began. HMRC has also awarded Capgemini a £37 million contract to migrate ETMP, which the supplier already operates, from SAP's legacy ECC software to S/4HANA. Officials said HMRC took steps to ensure a fair and transparent procurement and a level playing field for all bidders. German software company SAP had already won the software deal for £275 million without competition. HMRC is also preparing to award a contract worth up to £500 million by June next year for an overhaul of its National Insurance and Pay-as-You-Earn (PAYE) systems. The systems were part of Aspire, and incumbent Accenture (US-founded, Ireland-based) has won £100 million in awards without competition to continue to support them. Burnham's procurement policy will therefore face an early test: whether overseas incumbents continue to secure lucrative work from one of the UK public sector's biggest technology buyers. ®

As the UK government promises to use public spending to back British business, research indicates that the tax collector has paid French tech giant Capgemini at least £4.2 billion since it began dismantling their flagship outsourcing arrangement. When Andy Burnham became Prime Minister in July, he said in his first speech that public procurement would "back British industry." The government later said businesses winning government contracts would need to show they were creating high-quality British jobs. However, the relationship between His Majesty's Revenue & Customs (HMRC) and Capgemini – which could ultimately span 32 years – shows the scale of that challenge. The worked with Otnox, which collects and standardizes public procurement data from more than 80 countries, to analyze HMRC's published transactions above £25,000. The records show that HMRC paid Capgemini at least £4.2 billion across 15,726 transactions between 2014 – when its Aspire contract with Capgemini was initially set to end – and July 2026. Sixteen months of data are missing from that period, so the true total may be higher. HMRC officials told The Reg the contract awards to Capgemini are fully compliant with UK procurement legislation and government policy. An HMRC spokesperson said: “While some strategic suppliers continue to play an important role in delivering critical services, we have moved from a small number of large legacy contracts to a more diverse supplier base. This has increased competition, innovation, and resilience in support of the government’s growth agenda.” Aspire began in 2004 as a ten-year contract with Capgemini as the prime supplier, but HMRC later extended it to June 2017. It became the government's largest technology contract, costing around £10 billion over 13 years. The arrangement, which also involved Fujitsu and Accenture, accounted for about 84 percent of HMRC's technology spending between April 2006 and March 2014. In 2016, the National Audit Office said Aspire provided stable but expensive IT systems. "The contract has contributed to HMRC's technology becoming out of date. HMRC is now replacing Aspire so that it can take greater control over how its IT is developed and provided," the spending watchdog said. "HMRC's commercial strategy is to work with more IT suppliers, including small and medium-sized enterprises. It will let shorter, more flexible contracts and avoid extending contracts wherever possible," the report added. When HMRC appeared before MPs in March 2015, it said it planned to replace Aspire in phases rather than extend it. Yet agreements announced in August 2015 and March 2016 kept some Aspire services running beyond the contract's June 2017 end date. Others were brought in-house or put out for fresh procurement, the NAO said. HM Treasury minutes published in November 2016 reflected the revised timetable. The tax collector said its "phased approach" to replacing Aspire services would take until 2020. "It is extending some Aspire services by a further three years..." it said, adding the plan to replace Aspire would produce annual savings of £200 million by 2020–21. In 2020, HMRC launched its Technology Sourcing Programme (TSP), promising to open its £900 million annual IT budget to a broader range of suppliers. The Cabinet Office later said that programme would produce £824.6 million in cash-releasing and non-cash releasing savings through IT modernization, including "supply chain control improvements and contract disaggregation." Capgemini nevertheless continued to win HMRC work, including contracts supporting systems it had built or operated under Aspire. Some were awarded without competition. In August this year, Capgemini won a £200 million, five-year contract to migrate and decommission HMRC's legacy data warehouses. In January 2022, Capgemini signed a £51 million agreement to continue supporting tax systems developed under Aspire. HMRC awarded Capgemini the three-year deal to support its Enterprise Tax Management Platform (ETMP) and Enterprise Operations (EOPS) Run and Associated Change Services as a sole supplier under a single lot. An archived Capgemini case study from 2012 [PDF] said the supplier designed and implemented ETMP as an SAP-based platform intended to support all customer-facing taxes. At the time, an HMRC spokesperson said it awarded the contract following "a rigorous procurement exercise" under "a competitive procedure." Capgemini's run continued. It won a contract worth up to £30 million in March 2022 to integrate HMRC's delayed customs platform with other systems. Later that month, HMRC awarded it a separate £214 million deal without competition to maintain legacy applications while they were decommissioned or modernized. In May 2024, HMRC awarded Capgemini another contract worth up to £245.5 million to keep legacy systems running. A separate five-year agreement to operate ETMP and EOPS until June 2029 was valued at between £403 million and £574 million. In June this year, HMRC chose Capgemini for a contact center deal worth up to £600 million. If it runs for the full ten years, the relationship will reach 2036 – 32 years after Aspire began. HMRC has also awarded Capgemini a £37 million contract to migrate ETMP, which the supplier already operates, from SAP's legacy ECC software to S/4HANA. Officials said HMRC took steps to ensure a fair and transparent procurement and a level playing field for all bidders. German software company SAP had already won the software deal for £275 million without competition. HMRC is also preparing to award a contract worth up to £500 million by June next year for an overhaul of its National Insurance and Pay-as-You-Earn (PAYE) systems. The systems were part of Aspire, and incumbent Accenture (US-founded, Ireland-based) has won £100 million in awards without competition to continue to support them. Burnham's procurement policy will therefore face an early test: whether overseas incumbents continue to secure lucrative work from one of the UK public sector's biggest technology buyers. ®

As the UK government promises to use public spending to back British business, research indicates that the tax collector has paid French tech giant Capgemini at least £4.2 billion since it began dismantling their flagship outsourcing arrangement. When Andy Burnham became Prime Minister in July, he said in his first speech that public procurement would "back British industry." The government later said businesses winning government contracts would need to show they were creating high-quality British jobs. However, the relationship between His Majesty's Revenue & Customs (HMRC) and Capgemini – which could ultimately span 32 years – shows the scale of that challenge. The worked with Otnox, which collects and standardizes public procurement data from more than 80 countries, to analyze HMRC's published transactions above £25,000. The records show that HMRC paid Capgemini at least £4.2 billion across 15,726 transactions between 2014 – when its Aspire contract with Capgemini was initially set to end – and July 2026. Sixteen months of data are missing from that period, so the true total may be higher. HMRC officials told The Reg the contract awards to Capgemini are fully compliant with UK procurement legislation and government policy. An HMRC spokesperson said: “While some strategic suppliers continue to play an important role in delivering critical services, we have moved from a small number of large legacy contracts to a more diverse supplier base. This has increased competition, innovation, and resilience in support of the government’s growth agenda.” Aspire began in 2004 as a ten-year contract with Capgemini as the prime supplier, but HMRC later extended it to June 2017. It became the government's largest technology contract, costing around £10 billion over 13 years. The arrangement, which also involved Fujitsu and Accenture, accounted for about 84 percent of HMRC's technology spending between April 2006 and March 2014. In 2016, the National Audit Office said Aspire provided stable but expensive IT systems. "The contract has contributed to HMRC's technology becoming out of date. HMRC is now replacing Aspire so that it can take greater control over how its IT is developed and provided," the spending watchdog said. "HMRC's commercial strategy is to work with more IT suppliers, including small and medium-sized enterprises. It will let shorter, more flexible contracts and avoid extending contracts wherever possible," the report added. When HMRC appeared before MPs in March 2015, it said it planned to replace Aspire in phases rather than extend it. Yet agreements announced in August 2015 and March 2016 kept some Aspire services running beyond the contract's June 2017 end date. Others were brought in-house or put out for fresh procurement, the NAO said. HM Treasury minutes published in November 2016 reflected the revised timetable. The tax collector said its "phased approach" to replacing Aspire services would take until 2020. "It is extending some Aspire services by a further three years..." it said, adding the plan to replace Aspire would produce annual savings of £200 million by 2020–21. In 2020, HMRC launched its Technology Sourcing Programme (TSP), promising to open its £900 million annual IT budget to a broader range of suppliers. The Cabinet Office later said that programme would produce £824.6 million in cash-releasing and non-cash releasing savings through IT modernization, including "supply chain control improvements and contract disaggregation." Capgemini nevertheless continued to win HMRC work, including contracts supporting systems it had built or operated under Aspire. Some were awarded without competition. In August this year, Capgemini won a £200 million, five-year contract to migrate and decommission HMRC's legacy data warehouses. In January 2022, Capgemini signed a £51 million agreement to continue supporting tax systems developed under Aspire. HMRC awarded Capgemini the three-year deal to support its Enterprise Tax Management Platform (ETMP) and Enterprise Operations (EOPS) Run and Associated Change Services as a sole supplier under a single lot. An archived Capgemini case study from 2012 [PDF] said the supplier designed and implemented ETMP as an SAP-based platform intended to support all customer-facing taxes. At the time, an HMRC spokesperson said it awarded the contract following "a rigorous procurement exercise" under "a competitive procedure." Capgemini's run continued. It won a contract worth up to £30 million in March 2022 to integrate HMRC's delayed customs platform with other systems. Later that month, HMRC awarded it a separate £214 million deal without competition to maintain legacy applications while they were decommissioned or modernized. In May 2024, HMRC awarded Capgemini another contract worth up to £245.5 million to keep legacy systems running. A separate five-year agreement to operate ETMP and EOPS until June 2029 was valued at between £403 million and £574 million. In June this year, HMRC chose Capgemini for a contact center deal worth up to £600 million. If it runs for the full ten years, the relationship will reach 2036 – 32 years after Aspire began. HMRC has also awarded Capgemini a £37 million contract to migrate ETMP, which the supplier already operates, from SAP's legacy ECC software to S/4HANA. Officials said HMRC took steps to ensure a fair and transparent procurement and a level playing field for all bidders. German software company SAP had already won the software deal for £275 million without competition. HMRC is also preparing to award a contract worth up to £500 million by June next year for an overhaul of its National Insurance and Pay-as-You-Earn (PAYE) systems. The systems were part of Aspire, and incumbent Accenture (US-founded, Ireland-based) has won £100 million in awards without competition to continue to support them. Burnham's procurement policy will therefore face an early test: whether overseas incumbents continue to secure lucrative work from one of the UK public sector's biggest technology buyers. ®