Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the cost to the public purse has been of the Public Services Network; and what estimate he has made of the savings to be accrued to the public purse of that Network.

Each government department or organisation connected to the PSN is responsible for procuring its own connectivity services separately from a group of approved providers. Since almost 700 public sector organisations across central government, local government and other public agencies and bodies use the PSN, it is not possible for Cabinet Office to report on the total cost to the public purse.

The National Audit Office 2016 “Protecting information across government” report reported that the project saved £406 million across government over the 4 years between 2011/12 and 2014/15.