Government lops £249m off ICT spending

Cabinet Office claims savings were made through more efficient running of sites such as Businesslink

The government claims to have saved £249m on ICT in the past year.

Cutbacks in spending on ICT and digital services accounted for £104m, as well as an additional £145m of savings made on ICT projects, according to the Cabinet Office.

Cheaper maintenance relating to its the Businesslink website and savings relating to its G-Cloud store, as well as reliance on in-house IT work instead of using larger service providers, were cited as areas of cost reduction.

The government has not yet announced any savings via open source technology, but a Cabinet Office spokesperson said they are expected in the next spending review.

The announcement comes following a Public Accounts Committee report last month detailing how the government had overspent on shared services initiatives, which the report said cost the government £255m instead of the projected savings of £159m.

Francis Maude, minister for the Cabinet Office, said Whitehall needed to operate in a more business-like fashion.

"In 2010 we set up an efficiency and reform group in the Cabinet Office to beef up government's operational centre and ensure that Whitehall operated in a more business-like fashion. It is working well, but we are determined to go even further," he added.

The ICT spending reducation is part of an overall £5.5bn savings announcement from the government. The Cabinet Office claims the further savings were made in existing consultancy contracts, freezing market spend and by using the government's bulk-buying and spend-pooling power.