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Select Committee · Public Accounts Committee

Tackling Defra’s ageing digital services

Status: Closed Opened: 28 Nov 2022 Closed: 21 Jul 2023 8 recommendations 17 conclusions 1 report

The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) has one of the largest spending allocations across government for updating its ‘legacy’ services that use old technology or no longer meet business needs. Defra’s problems with legacy services have built up over the years, with most now either no longer supported by the supplier or …

Clear

Reports

1 report
Title HC No. Published Items Response
Fifty-First Report - Tackling Defra’s ageing digital servic… HC 737 10 May 2023 25 Responded

Recommendations & Conclusions

1 item
21 Conclusion Fifty-First Report - Tackling Defra’s a… Deferred

Defra's digital investment funding is inadequate for comprehensive legacy service transformation.

In the 2021 Spending Review, Defra received £871 million for digital investment for 2021–2025, of which £366 million was to address legacy issues and bring its systems up to date. The remainder was for investment in the Future Farming and Countryside and borders and trade programmes which were needed to …

Government response. The government agrees with the conclusion, acknowledging budget pressures and stating that CDDO will support departments in prioritising efforts. Defra will conduct an analysis of its service landscape to determine investment priorities ahead of the SR24 bidding process and will …
HM Treasury

Oral evidence sessions

1 session
Date Witnesses
19 Jan 2023 Chris Howes · Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Malcolm McKee · Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Paul Willmott · Cabinet Office, Tamara Finkelstein CB · Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs View ↗

Correspondence

1 letter
DateDirectionTitle
7 Feb 2023 — Correspondence from Tamara Finkelstein CB, Permanent Secretary, The Department …