Appendix One Our audit approach

1  This study examined whether HM Revenue & Customs' (HMRC's) management of its ICT outsourcing contract, Aspire, has been value for money. We reviewed:

•  the contract's performance, cost and commercial management, between July 2004 and March 2014;

•  the effect of HMRC's work since 2012 to change the contract and bring in more competition; and

•  HMRC's work to replace Aspire in 2017.

2  We used an analytical framework with evaluative criteria. With these, we considered what outcomes would be optimal from such a contract and what arrangements would be optimal at this moment in preparing for the future. This analytical framework was based on the Good practice contract management framework developed jointly by ourselves and Office of Government Commerce in 2008.27 By 'optimal' we mean the most desirable considering the contract's scale, the high importance of HMRC's ICT and the extent of its legacy ICT infrastructure, and current government policy on ICT contracts.

3  We established HMRC's spend through Aspire, its expenditure in managing the Aspire contract and the resources it is using to establish the new arrangements.

4  We also identified how well Aspire's services have performed and, as far as possible, the benefits to HMRC of the projects carried out through Aspire.

5  Our audit approach is summarised in Figure 14. Our evidence base is described in Appendix Two.

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27  National Audit Office and Office of Government Commerce, Good practice contract management framework, December 2008