120. The Cabinet Office consider that most contracts, particularly those for run-of-the- mill services, perform satisfactorily, while around 20 percent or more of complex or innovative contracts fail or run into serious difficulties.124 In July 2017, the Cabinet Office began continency planning in the event of Carillion failing, but was hampered by the lack of a complete list of Carillion's government contracts. The Cabinet Office was still seeking information from across the public sector when the company entered liquidation. When Carillion collapsed, Carillion staff generally continued to provide public services uninterrupted, despite a lack of management information.125
121. Rupert Soames suggested that all suppliers to Government should maintain 'Living Wills'-contingency measures produced and maintained by a supplier in the event of corporate failure.126 The information in the Living Will would enable Government to transfer delivery of the contract to another supplier, or take it back in-house.127 The Cabinet Office has announced that it will adopt the approach.128 We welcome the Government's intention to introduce a requirement for suppliers to produce 'Living Will' contingency documents.
122. Recommendation: In response to this report, we expect the Government to provide more detail about how the policy will be implemented; what the documents would contain; and how their contents would be scrutinised, assured and kept up to date.
123. Recommendation: More complex contracts are more likely to go wrong. We would expect the Cabinet Office to consider the burden of creating and maintaining the living wills and balancing that burden with the complexity of the project and the risk and impact of contract failure.
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124 Qq 731-7
125 Oral evidence taken before the Liaison Committee on 7 February 2018, HC (2017-19) 770, Q 35
126 Serco, Lecture Rupert Soames to Business Services Association 18 June 2018, accessed 12 July 2018
127 Serco, Lecture Rupert Soames to Business Services Association 18 June 2018, accessed 12 July 2018
128 Cabinet Office, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster speech to Reform, 25 June 2018, accessed 12 July 2018