Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment he has made of the effect of variation in staff contracts on the development of shared services across Government; and if he will make a statement.

Allowing for flexibility to vary terms and conditions of employment across departments is a legitimate requirement, as this supports the wide range in operations, scale and diversity across government organisations as separate employers

The Government Shared Services Strategy establishes the intention for all government departments to adopt modern technology platforms for their back office, and for departments to 'cluster' around these platforms for increasingly convergent shared service provision.

Adoption of these technologies will facilitate greater standardisation of processes, data and ways of working between organisations, while allowing a small degree of flexibility according to necessary organisational and operational context.