Recommendation 5

Poor data and legacy IT are a barrier to effective oversight of its arm’s-length bodies. There are real risks to departments as a result of aging IT systems, including threats to resilience and inconsistencies in data presentation and comparability. Legacy IT systems can also lead to issues in identifying and collecting the right data, which is crucial to understanding the costs and benefits of different delivery approaches, and for departments to be able to manage their ALBs effectively. In addition to operational risk, legacy IT systems can also give rise to increased financial costs. This committee’s report on the challenges in using data across government found that aging IT systems make extracting data expensive and sometimes impossible. We therefore welcome HM Treasury’s commitment to considering the risks posed by legacy IT as part of the next Spending Review. Government’s delivery through arm’s-length bodies 7 Recommendation: HM Treasury should write to us as soon as possible after the Spending Review to outline how bids to resolve systemic legacy IT issues have been addressed as part of Spending Review 2021.