Create a digital and technology spend controls pipeline
Updated 23 October 2024
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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/digital-and-technology-spend-control-version-6/create-a-digital-and-technology-spend-controls-pipeline
Follow this guidance to submit spend requests in accordance with the digital and technology spend control policy version 6 to maintain a list of your activities related to digital and technology spend.
1. Activities in your pipelines
Adding your spend requests to the get approval to spend service creates a collection of cases which are your pipeline. A pipeline is a list of your current and future activities that incur spend.
You must make sure all planned spend is included in your pipeline in line with the thresholds for the digital and technology spend control even if you have not yet secured funding.
Digital and technology spend thresholds are set according to the type of product or service you are proposing. You must check the thresholds before applying.
| Your spend is related to | You must get approval if you’re planning to spend more than |
|---|---|
| Crypt-Key in accordance with the Crypt-Key Control | £0 |
| A public facing service | £100,000 |
| All other spend on digital, data and technology | £1,000,000 |
Your internal assurance team or CDDO will use your pipeline to assess your spend requests. Pipelines help your organisation to:
- see all commercial, digital and technology spend activity
- plan resourcing and capability requirements
- improve spend planning and transparency for your management team
- focus expertise on spend activities that require more oversight, allowing you to spot patterns or duplicated spend within your organisation
- reduce retrospective spend requests
- plan earlier for extensions, renewals and new requirements
- promote assurance activity that is sensible and proportionate
You do not need to provide all required information about your spend in one go. As you learn more about what you will be delivering, you can build up a record of information relating to your spend over time.
2. How to add a spend request to the digital service
You must create an account and sign in to the get approval to spend service.
Follow the steps in the service to provide information about your proposed spend by answering a series of questions. The questions will vary depending on what it is that you are delivering and will ask you to:
- provide an overview of your spend including what you are aiming to achieve, how you will achieve it and over what time period
- use the risk and importance framework to assess the risk and importance to government of what you are delivering
- demonstrate how your spend aligns with the strategic commitments of the government’s digital strategy
- demonstrate how your spend aligns with the Service Standard
When you have provided all relevant information, you will be able to submit your spend for approval. This will create a spend case in the service.
The service allows you to save drafts, so you do not have to make the application in one go.
This also gives early visibility of a new spend request, even if you are not yet able to provide all the information needed for it to be approved. Sharing information early can also allow you to access support and advice earlier.
The service allows for any appropriate person from the organisation to load individual cases. This might be a delivery professional with budget responsibilities, someone they delegate to, or an assurance professional. Your organisation also has the option to bulk upload cases by using your internal assurance team.
You may be asked follow-up questions by assurance professionals about your spend request before it is approved. Examples of topics which you may be asked to respond to questions on include:
- alternative options that you have considered to deliver the outcomes you are setting out to achieve
- the alignment of your spend to other applicable technical standards such as the Technology Code of Practice or National Cyber Security Centre design principles
- the legality and ethics of your approach including specific legal and ethics advice has been sought, this is usually only for more contentious spend
- the deliverability of your approach including questions to build confidence that your plan is deliverable within time and budget
- your approach to achieving and capturing the intended benefits
If you need help or support with setting up your pipeline please contact [email protected].
3. Reporting on multiple pipelines
You may have to report spend on multiple pipelines in order to comply with all Cabinet Office Spend Controls.
For example, if you are putting in place a new commercial agreement for digital and technology which is £20 million or over, you must feature this activity on both your commercial and digital and technology pipelines.
You should report digital and technology spend on the get approval to spend service and the commercial assurance management system for commercial spend.