Committee publication · Correspondence · 8 June 2026

Letter from the Director General Future Civil Service at the Cabinet Office relating to RE: Follow-up to Committee Hearing: Government Shared Services (Thursday 14 May 2026), 2 June 2026

Summary

The Cabinet Office's Director General for Future Civil Service responds to the Public Accounts Committee's May 2026 hearing on Government Shared Services. The letter provides detailed cost-benefit analysis (£4.3bn benefits over 15 years against £1.6bn implementation costs), confirms HR functional standards rollout by August 2028, justifies cluster-specific delivery models (outsourcing vs insourcing decisions), and clarifies HM Treasury's go/no-go decision timeline for Matrix cluster participation by December 2026.

Key findings

Estimated lifetime benefits of £4.3bn across five clusters over 15 years, compared to counterfactual replacement costs of £3.77–£4.24bn if departments replaced systems independently; shared services approach reduces costs to £1.6bn
No 'do nothing' option exists: current systems are cyber-vulnerable and approaching end of serviceable life; replacement is a cost of doing business
Synergy cluster maintains outsourcing to Capita; Unity (HMRC) chose insourcing following Arvato contract end; Matrix selected UK SBS—each decision driven by different factors including existing capability, supplier maturity, and headcount constraints
HR functional standards (NOVA) expected to converge across all departments between December 2026 and August 2028, aligned with ERP system go-live dates by cluster
HM Treasury expects documentation by summer 2026 to inform Accounting Officer sign-off by December 2026; Shared Services Board to report comprehensive roadmap by summer recess 2026

Tone

Factual

Topics

public-financegovernment-efficiencydigital-transformationshared-servicesprocurement

Key actors

Jerome Glass (Director General Future Civil Service, Cabinet Office), Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown MP (Chair, Public Accounts Committee), HM Treasury, Cabinet Office, Capita, HMRC, UK Shared Business Services (UK SBS), National Audit Office (NAO)

Notable line

“There is no 'do nothing' option. Current systems are old, cyber vulnerable and fast approaching end of serviceable life and contracts.”

Key Quotes

“There is no 'do nothing' option. Current systems are old, cyber vulnerable and fast approaching end of serviceable life and contracts.”
— Jerome Glass · Addressing the cost of doing nothing under the Shared Services strategy

“By following SSfG, these costs fall dramatically to around £1.6bn with £4.3bn of cashable and non-cashable benefits.”
— Jerome Glass · Comparing Shared Services for Government approach against departmental go-it-alone costs

“All departments are expected to be using the converged HR Functional Data Standards between December 2026 and August 2028, as their ERP systems go live.”
— Jerome Glass · HR functional standards implementation timeline across clusters

“HMT expects to receive the majority of the documentation required to assess feasibility and the cost of service by the end of summer”
— Jerome Glass · HM Treasury's go/no-go decision timeline for Matrix cluster participation

“Delays in the Matrix programme have had a knock-on impact on HMT receiving key documents and evidence, subsequently pushing back HMT's formal Accounting Officer sign-off decision.”
— Jerome Glass · Explaining reasons for deferral of HM Treasury's Accounting Officer approval

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Source · parliament.uk record ↗