Government scraps multimillion-pound IT megadeal

Wide-ranging deal with Office for National Statistics scrapped

The government has canned a public sector IT deal which could have been worth up to £37m.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) published a tender for its Procurement of Replacement IT Service Environment (PRISE) project in May 2014 as it looked to replace part of its old legacy contract and move towards a tower-based model.

PRISE was set to take over from its legacy predecessor, which is due to expire at the end of this month, but in a notice published on Saturday, the ONS said the new scheme is being cancelled.

"The ONS would like to inform the market of the cancellation of the PRISE Lots 1, 2 and 3," it said in the publication. "The ONS is currently working with Government Digital Service, Crown Commercial Services and Cabinet Office to identify next steps."

The ONS was not available to provide further comment on why it canned the deal.

In its initial tender document, the ONS said the contract would cover a wide range of technology including software, telecoms, printing, repair and maintenance, security, networks and hardware.

PRISE was initially designed to open the ONS up to a wider range of suppliers.

"The contracting authority is intending to move from a single-supplier model to a tower-based model which allows for the provision of IT services from service towers being managed by the SIAM [Service Integration and Management] operating model," it said in the initial tender.

"The contracting authority has undertaken a review of its existing supply chain and has chosen a target operating model and a strategic IT supply chain that adopts industry standards and good practice."

The contract was expected to run for an initial period of three years – with an option to extend for another two years – and over the course of that period was expected to be worth between £13m and £37m.