Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the answer of 21 October 2025, to question 79592 on Cabinet Office: ICT, what progress has she made in saving £20 million of public money via the Falcon programme.

The Falcon programme is currently in its pilot phase, which includes three business units. Key technical aspects of the pilot are expected to be completed by Christmas, followed by a wider Cabinet Office rollout starting in January, which will allow benefits to be realized as each business unit transitions.

The programme’s future service model has been designed and will be tested during the pilot, which is scheduled to conclude by 31st March 2027. Regarding governance, the programme has refined and matured its change control and governance processes, enabling faster identification, assessment, and decision-making.

A revised Programme Business Case is underway, with work initiated in late August and is scheduled for submission in November. This document will include both a rebaselined benefits position and rebaselined costs extending to December 2027.

In relation to testing, defects identified during prepilot testing required significant remediation before the programme could pass through its pilot entry gateway review. Subsequent remediations were successfully planned and executed, enabling the programme to proceed through a following gateway review.