Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the cost to the public purse was of (a) all activities, (b) contract negotiation, (c) staffing costs and (d) general resource expenditure associated with the cancelled procurement contract between the National Employment Savings Trust and Atos since 2019; and what steps his Department is taking to ensure value for money in digital procurement.

Nest Corporation is the Trustee for the scheme and is classified as a public corporation because it receives over 50% of its income from commercial activities. It is accountable to Parliament through the department, which retains a crucial role in oversight, but is generally independent of government in its day-to-day commercial decisions. As part of the department’s oversight function all costs associated with Nest’s decision to terminate the contract with Atos would be subsumed within a core staffing and resources budget with no specific allocation provided. Through activities across market engagement, procurement and contract management, DWP continually seeks to ensure value for money by planning the contractual needs, sourcing the right suppliers to meet those needs and then effectively managing the resulting contracts.