Recommendation 8

The Department told us that the original business case had quite a large level of projected savings—£100 million as quoted by the National Audit Office. We asked how much of that £100 million quoted in the report was actually realised and the Department confirmed that it would have been much lower than that. The Department also stated that there was an in-principle case that savings ought to be achievable, at almost no cost and no risk to the taxpayer, and that was the basis of the decision in 2012. However, the business case would probably not have been sufficient if government funds were being invested.9