DfE spent £113.8m with Capita last year

Figures released to Kable under Freedom of Information by the department show that the outsourcing company topped its supplier list, with Capgemini coming second with £33.9m of spending in 2009-10. The department spent £459.8m with its 100 largest suppliers in the last financial year. Figures published last week by the Cabinet Office show that the education department spent £52.9m with Capita Business Services from May to September of this year and £9.9m with Capgemini over the same period. Other ICT vendors that are listed on the DfE's 2009-10 supplier list include Serco, which received £16.1m; Logica (£8.1m); RM, including its data solutions division, received £6.9m); WS Atkins (£4.9m); Eduserv (£2.7m); and BT (£1.9m). On 19 November 2010 Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude spoke at the Open Data conference in London to mark the release of large accounts of raw data on Whitehall spending. Reiterating the government's commitment to be more transparent, he told the audience: "Starting from now every government department will publish every item of spending over £25,000 online. Some are going further, some are publishing it right down to £500. "And it is not being published in a vague way, each item will be listed in some detail: data transaction; the value; the name of the contractor; some kind of description of the good or service being purchased. It's not perfect as you can tell, but we are working on it and it will get better as time goes on," he added. Top 100 suppliers in 2009-10 to: HMRC - DWP - DoH - Connecting for Health