Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment he has made of the effect of departmental variations in finance, human resources and procurement processes on the development of shared services across government; and if he will make a statement.

Standardisation and convergence of processes enables the successful delivery of shared services. The Shared Services Strategy for Government, published January 2018, establishes the intention for process and data convergence across government; with departments adopting modern technology platforms for their back office, and to 'cluster' around these platforms for increasingly convergent shared service provision.

Adoption of these technologies, particularly with increased automation, 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.