Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government, with reference to page 19 of the Government Strategy for Grants Management 2023–2025 published in September 2023, what are (1) the current total budget, (2) staffing level, and (3) key performance indicators, for the Government Grants Managed Service; and which government departments and arm’s-length bodies currently use the Government Grants Managed Service.

The current year budget is cost-neutral to the Cabinet Office. Operational costs depend upon the value of grants which go through the pilot, as resources are flexed according to demand. Customer departments and ALBs pay for the administration of these pilot grants.

There is currently a central programme team of 7 FTE, with operations staff numbers variable, according to demand.

A monitoring and evaluation approach and plan was developed in December 2023 and agreed with the Evaluation Task Force (ETF). A set of KPIs was agreed, focused on the cost to serve of grant administration in GGMS, versus departments’ usual approaches to grant and the median baseline cost. There are also KPIs related to the identification of fraud and error through the Spotlight due diligence tool.

Eight departments, arm’s-length bodies or other public bodies are participating in the pilot: the Home Office, the Department for Transport, the Department for Science, Innovation, & Technology, the Money & Pensions Service, the Department for Education, the Northern Ireland Office, UK Space Agency and UK Atomic Energy Authority.