See: Report from
Nigel Boardman
This review was commissioned by the Cabinet Office in
September. Preliminary internal fact finding had
suggested that further exploration was needed into the
way in which some contracts for communications services
were awarded during the early stages of the response to
the COVID-19 pandemic, in order to learn lessons from
the response to the pandemic and improve our processes
for the future.
Fact-finding was already underway in response to claims
for Judicial Review relating to the award of two of
these contracts. Nigel Boardman was asked to consider
the results of this exercise and make recommendations
for improvements. This would allow us to work quickly
on making improvements to our guidance and process.
The report contains 28 specific recommendations centred
around two broad themes, namely the Cabinet Office’s
procurement processes and the way government manages
actual and perceived conflicts of interest.
It is important to note that there are some areas for
recommendations which are already standard practice in
some parts of the Cabinet Office, or in which we have
made, or will shortly make, improvements. The
fact-finding exercise was specific to communications
contracts and in one small and specialist business
unit. As the report notes, and would be expected, there
are many examples of good practice in the Cabinet
Office. Nevertheless I agree with Nigel Boardman that,
in relation to the areas that he has scrutinised, there
are clear lessons to be learnt and improvements to be
made.
The Cabinet Office is strongly committed to learning
lessons from these events, and as such I can confirm
that we will accept and implement all 28
recommendations in full. We take our obligations to
transparency, integrity, and ensuring value for money
extremely seriously, and It’s important that the public
has confidence in government to manage taxpayer’s money
correctly.
I have written to the Cabinet Office Board, and have
set out the next steps for implementation which the
Cabinet Office Audit and Risk Committee will oversee,
We will update on progress in six months time.
Finally, as the report acknowledges, I would like to
note again the exceptional circumstances in which
officials in the Cabinet Office, like other
departments, were operating, working at tremendous pace
in order to safeguard the public during an
unprecedented global pandemic.
Author note
Nigel Boardman is a non-executive board member of the
Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
(BEIS) and the Chair of the Audit and Risk Assurance
Committee.
