Department increases by 50% the worth of a deal with a major tech provider, with more money required to enable the creation and work of the Infected Blood Compensation Authority

The Cabinet Office has added £60m to the potential worth of a major contract for a “strategic delivery partner” for digital initiatives.

The additional spending has been attributed to the need for technology services to support the work of the government body especially created to deliver billions of pounds of compensation to citizens affected by the infected blood scandal.

In 2024, the department entered into an initial three-year engagement with Canada-headquartered IT services giant CGI. This deal, which was valued at up to £120m and can be extended for two additional years, was intended to enable the provision of “services which cover the breadth of the DDaT spectrum, including all 43 digital, data, and technology roles to support the [Cabinet Office] with delivering new digital services, as well as managing existing and new live services”.

As well as providing experts from the DDaT profession – now renamed Government Digital and Data – the supplier, and “an ecosystem of… subcontractors, which must include… SME and specialist providers”, has also been retained to provide project-management services, as well as cyber and data-protection specialists.

A newly released commercial notice reveals that the estimated maximum worth of the deal has been expanded to £180m, inclusive of VAT. The additional spending comes as a result of “the need for IT professional services related to the Infected Blood Compensation Authority’s (IBCA) establishment” in 2024.

This specially created arm’s-length body has required support including the “refinement and operation of their digital service and data platform, which are required to be delivered at pace to fulfil the legal obligations of that body”. As a result of which “additional services are required from the existing contractor, for interoperability and continuity reasons”.

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The notice adds: “As the existing contractor has built the digital service and data platform specifically for IBCA – to move to another supplier at this stage would cause significant delays to the programme and a risk that IBCA’s obligations and functions could not be fulfilled during the transition to a new supplier. IBCA requires access to these services quickly to meet ministerial public commitments, and also to cater for changes to the Infected Blood Compensation Scheme Regulations. This is why the [Cabinet Office] does not have time to re-compete and transition the services. Running a new procurement would result in significant inconvenience due to the disruption to IBCA’s activities.”

The document explains that the changes to enable additional spending is permitted under procurement regulations as it relates to “modifications that are necessary and a change of contractor cannot be made for economic or technical reasons… [and that] any increase in value does not exceed 50% of the original contract value”.

The increase in this case is exactly 50%, and the notice adds that “there is no change in the economic balance of the… contract, as the existing contractor is not being paid more for the same volume of services, it is only that they are providing a greater volume”.

Over several decades beginning in the 1970s, thousands of people in UK were provided with contaminated blood or other products, as a result, were infected with diseases including hepatitis B and C and HIV.

A public inquiry on the scandal concluded in 2024, following which new laws were passed and the IBCA was created to support the delivery of compensation to those affected. Since then more than £2bn has been paid out to victims.