Government cannot track annual digital transformation spending, MPs say
The government has told MPs that it cannot publish annual figures showing how much departments and public bodies spend on digital and data-driven transformation because existing financial systems do not allow it. Ministers say they will consider how to improve the position over time, leaving Parliament without a promised yearly measure of expenditure for now.
The disclosure appears in the government’s response to a June inquiry into delivering digital government. The cross-government spending question is distinct from the committee’s earlier report: this update records what ministers have now accepted, declined or left unanswered. The committee says the response does not provide the clear picture of investment that it sought.
The original inquiry argued that weak spending data obstructs informed decisions and makes it harder to hold public bodies to account. Its recommendation was for departments and public bodies to disclose annual spending on digital and data-driven activity, with the figures published as part of the government’s public expenditure statistical material. The response, as described by the committee, does not commit to that annual publication. Instead, officials point to limitations in current financial systems and say improvement will be considered over time.
A commitment on supplier dependence, but not the health data contract
There is a firmer commitment on vendor lock-in. The government has agreed to develop a strategy intended to strengthen in-house capability and increase use of open standards. That is a promised strategy, not evidence that dependence on suppliers has already been reduced or that a completed plan has been published.
The committee’s June report had warned that public services rely heavily on a small number of large technology providers. It linked that dependence to weaker public-sector bargaining power and raised concerns about whether government has sufficient internal skills to manage digital programmes. Open standards can make it easier for systems to work together and for public bodies to change suppliers, but the committee update does not set out a timetable or measurable target for the proposed strategy.
The response leaves a particularly prominent question unresolved: whether the government will use a break clause in its contract for the NHS Federated Data Platform, supplied by Palantir. Ministers neither committed to exercising the clause nor ruled it out. The committee says it has separately written to the Health Secretary seeking clarification. No decision to end or continue the contract at that break point is reported in this update.
The government did provide further details about which engineers can access data through the platform and said privacy notices had been updated. Those details do not answer the separate contract question. Nor does the committee’s account establish that the break clause has been invoked or that the platform’s data protections have been found deficient.
Legacy systems plan due by year-end
On ageing public-sector technology, ministers have agreed with recommendations for stronger co-ordination. They have pledged an action plan by the end of 2026 for establishing a dedicated taskforce to advance and secure modernisation of legacy systems across government. The distinction matters: the commitment is to produce a plan for establishing the taskforce, rather than confirmation that the taskforce is already operating or that old systems have been replaced.
Legacy systems can make it harder to maintain services, share information and apply security updates. The June inquiry treated this as one of the barriers to broader transformation. A co-ordinated approach could help departments identify priorities that cannot be tackled in isolation, but the committee’s update does not specify which systems will be addressed first, how progress will be measured or how the work will be funded.
The response also did not identify which departments or public bodies have yet to adopt basic data-hygiene practices. It did not engage with the committee’s recommendation for clearer senior leadership of digital transformation, including a Government Chief Digital Officer at permanent-secretary level. The committee linked the unresolved leadership question to uncertainty over who is responsible for driving change across government.
Committee chair Dame Chi Onwurah is due to give a statement in Westminster Hall at 1.30pm on Thursday 22 October. At the time of this update, that statement was still upcoming; no remarks from it are included here. The immediate record is therefore a mixed government response: a promise to develop a supplier-dependence strategy, agreement to prepare a legacy-systems taskforce plan by year-end, no annual spending figures yet, and no resolution of the NHS platform break-clause question.
