3.14 HMRC has benchmarked the price of Aspire services and projects on several occasions. The results of the benchmarking have suggested that HMRC has often paid above-market rates:
• In 2008 and 2009, HMRC commissioned a benchmarking consultancy to examine 60 per cent of the contract by value. This found that the price HMRC paid was higher than the benchmark in most areas the review covered.
• In 2009, HMRC commissioned a high-level benchmarking review of the entire contract. It suggested there was scope to reduce the contract cost by between £113 million and £225 million per annum.
• In 2010, HMRC commissioned another high-level review of the entire contract and showed there was further scope to reduce prices by £64 million per annum.
• In 2011, HMRC appointed specialists to review several contract elements, but they struggled to find market comparators. In 2014, the specialists produced estimates for one element of the contract, data centre services. On the basis of the estimates, HMRC began negotiations to recover substantial monies from 2011-12 to the end of the contract.
3.15 Benchmarking is not as strong as actual market testing in establishing market prices. As it is often not possible to agree a like-for-like comparison, suppliers dispute many of the results of the HMRC benchmarking. However, benchmarking gave HMRC evidence that it used in its major renegotiations with Capgemini.
3.16 HMRC estimates that, through its negotiations, it has made savings worth £750 million between 2007-08 and 2013-14. This estimate is based on actual payments and the modelling of savings projections for each contract change. Capgemini has told us that these savings will be worth a further £1 billion over the remainder of the contract.