See more information about this guidance

Transparency data

Defra Government Major Project Portfolio data, September 2015 (csv)

Updated 7 July 2016
Download CSV 8.21 KB

Project Name CAP Delivery Programme Thames Estuary Asset Management Programme (TEAM2100) Thames Tideway Tunnel DEFRA UNITY PROGRAMME
Department DEFRA DEFRA DEFRA DEFRA
IPA RAG rating (A Delivery Confidence Assessment of the project at a fixed point in time, using a five-point scale, Red – Amber/Red – Amber – Amber/Green – Green; definitions in the IPA Annual Report) Amber/Red Green Amber/Green Amber/Red
Description / Aims The primary objective of the Common Agricultural Policy Delivery Programme is to procure a solution for the processing, payment and accounting of claims for funding from all schemes as part of CAP2013. TEAM2100 will further reduce tidal flood risk to the 1.25 million people and £200 billion of property in London and the Thames estuary through capital maintenance and refurbishment of tidal flood risk assets. It is the first multi-year programme to be implemented from the government approved TE2100 Plan. TEAM2100 is being delivered through a long-term, collaborative contract between the Environment Agency and the delivery partner, CH2M. The planned Thames Tideway Tunnel is the most cost effective, comprehensive and timely solution to address the problem of combined sewer overflows into the Thames in London, and is due for completion in 2023. Following the procurement and licence award the duty to build the Thames Tideway Tunnel falls to ‘Bazalgette Tunnel Limited’ (also known as ‘Tideway’), with some work being done by Thames Water Utilities Limited. Oversight of customer interests falls to Ofwat. As lead Department, Defra is responsible for the regulatory regime for the water sector. Defra is also the lead department in managing risks to the taxpayer that arise from the requirement for contingent government support that enhances the credit of the project and enables the capital markets to finance the Tunnel. During the construction phase Defra will work closely with Tideway, Thames Water, and Ofwat, through the Liaison Committee to track progress and ensure customer and taxpayer interests continue to be protected. DEFRA UNITY programme has been established to exploit the opportunity presented from the expiry of its two largest ICT contracts by June 2018 to move to a multi-vendor environment. The objectives of DEFRA UNITY include reduced running costs for ICT services in scope; compliance with Government and DEFRA ICT policies; and improvement and standardisation of services. It is a key enabler of wider transformation and business change in Defra.
Departmental commentary on actions planned or taken on the IPA RAG rating. The Amber/Red rating reflected the significant challenges seen at that time in being able to make payments from 1st December 2015 to the Pillar 1 customers who had made claims. This was both in terms of developing and deploying system functionality, and also the volume of manual processing required as a result of the contingency approach invoked at the start of the year. For the Pillar 2 Countryside Stewardship applications, system fixes and workarounds were also required to allow them to be processed and agreements started from 1st January 2016. Defra subsequently began making payments to Pillar 1 customers on the first day of the EU payment window in December. As of 2nd May 2016, £1.28 billion was paid to 85,594 farmers, including around 7,500 bridging payments made to those not in receipt of a claim payment in April. Nearly 3000 mid-tier and higher-tier Countryside Stewardship applications have been received with agreements taking effect from the start of 2016. For 2016 an online application service has been launched for Pillar 1, with additional improvements to the online claim service for Pillar 2. As of 2nd May 2016, 39,397 Pillar 1 applications had been successfully submitted, of which around 33,500 were made online. Further incremental enhancements to the service will be made during the first half of 2016 to develop it for 2017. The Green rating signifies that successful delivery of the project/programme to time, cost and quality appears highly likely. There are no major outstanding issues that, at this stage, threaten delivery. With licence award and signing of the Government Support Package, the development, planning and procurement phase of the project has been delivered. The construction phase has only just started and there are no indications to suggest that this is not on track or that there is an increased risk to Government. Wider project governance has been developed and is being tested. The Amber/Red rating reflected issues faced by the programme on resourcing, governance and detailed planning. Since September 2015, UnITy has mobilised a full programme team, developed commercial and technical proposals and strengthened governance.
Project - Start Date (Latest approved start date) 01/01/2011 01/04/2010 07/09/2010 01/11/2014
Project - End Date (Latest approved end date) 31/03/2016 31/12/2025 31/12/2023 01/06/2018
Departmental narrative on schedule, including any deviation from planned schedule (if necessary) System development is expected to continue into summer 2016 and the formal end date of the programme is under review. Key procurement milestones were achieved and the programme is on schedule to deliver by closure date. Project is on track to deliver to current timelines. The high level plan for UNITY has been amended to take account of restructuring of corporate services in Defra. The programme is on schedule to replace or extend services in line with contract end dates.
2015/16 Budget (£million) £25.29 £7.35 £2.38 £291.00
2015/16 Forecast (£million) £60.63 £12.30 £3.00 £291.00
Variance Budget / Forecast %age 139.73% 67.35% 26.05% Budget variance less than 5%.
Total budgeted whole life costs (£million) (including Non-government costs) £154.80 £318.42 £4,221.10 £1,666.00
Departmental Narrative on Budget / Forecast variance for 2015/16 where more than +/- 5% 2015/16 Budget is based on the Full Business Case approved by Treasury in March 2014 and Forecast is based on the updated Full Business Case which has subsequently received Treasury approval. The reason for the significant increase in 2015/16 forecast expenditure is due to the requirement to adopt a contingency approach in 2015, which extended the Programme and increased costs. The budget variance in 2015/16 resulted from bringing forward engineering investigations and pilot studies to optimise the programme. This increase represents costs that have been brought forward from future years of this 10 year programme, as opposed to additional expenditure. The 2015/16 variance relates to a higher then anticipated requirement for external advice in the development and approval of the Government Support Package to ensure Government’s interests are fully protected. The £291m budget for 2015/16 is the total IT costs across the Defra group as included in the latest approved Strategic Outline Business Case.
Departmental Narrative on Budgeted Whole Life Costs The Whole Life Cost baseline is from the Full Business Case approved by Treasury in March 2014. A new Full Business Case has subsequently received approval, showing an increased Whole Life Cost of £215.88m. The main areas of cost growth are: i. Core Application Build (Customer portal and rules engine). ii. Environments/Platforms. iii. Programme Support. The project is on track to deliver within original budget. The whole life cost is made up of two elements: the whole life capital cost of tunnel construction of £4.2bn to be funded by ‘Tideway’ and Thames Water Utilities Limited, which relates to the private sector project; and the Government costs, estimated in September 2015 at ?21.1m. The Government costs relate exclusively to the Enabling Project and include staff costs for the Thames Tideway Tunnel Project Team in Defra and their external advisers. Information on the overall capital costs can be found in Defra’s publication “Costs and benefits of the Thames Tideway Tunnel - 2015 update” The forecast whole life cost of almost £1.7bn over 5 years is taken from the latest approved business case. It has been calculated using a top down approach applying percentage savings to individual services based upon external benchmarking data, comparisons to market pricing (where available) and other industry experience.