Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 31
31
Over-reliance on limited strategic IT suppliers creates significant cyber security risks.
Conclusion
Based on written evidence, we asked the Cabinet Office about the advantages and disadvantages of relying on a few strategic suppliers.67 The Cabinet Office acknowledged that trying to maximise value for money and interoperability while managing the risks was not straightforward. DSIT added that this was not just a cyber security issue. In July 2024, the major global IT outage resulting from a Crowdstrike software update on Microsoft systems caused significant impacts around the world.68 Regarding competition concerns in the markets for cloud services, the Cabinet Office told us that this was not just a government challenge. Many organisations were using the two suppliers that dominated the market. DSIT reassured us that it was working to prevent government services to regions of the UK becoming too concentrated on a single supplier.69 Meeting the 2025 and 2030 targets
Government Response
A response document is linked to this report, dated 18 September 2025. Response attribution to this conclusion has not been verified. Read the response document ↗