Britain's tax collection agency has paid French technology giant Capgemini at least £4.2 billion since 2014, even as it worked to dismantle a flagship outsourcing deal with the company, according to research published by The Register in collaboration with Otnox, a firm that collects public procurement data. The payments span more than 15,700 transactions between 2014—when the original Aspire contract was scheduled to expire—and July 2026, though records from 16 months are missing, meaning the actual total could be higher. The findings arrive as Prime Minister Andy Burnham promises that government spending will "back British industry," raising questions about whether overseas suppliers will continue securing major contracts from one of the UK's largest public sector technology buyers.

The Aspire arrangement launched in 2004 as a ten-year deal with Capgemini serving as the lead contractor, but His Majesty's Revenue & Customs (HMRC) later stretched it to June 2017, making it the government's biggest technology contract at roughly £10 billion over 13 years. Between April 2006 and March 2014, the agreement—which also involved Fujitsu and Accenture—represented about 84 percent of HMRC's technology expenditures. Despite announcing plans in 2015 to replace Aspire in stages rather than extend it, HMRC signed agreements in August 2015 and March 2016 that kept some services running past the June 2017 deadline. In 2020, the agency launched its Technology Sourcing Programme, pledging to distribute its £900 million annual IT budget among a wider array of vendors and deliver £824.6 million in savings through modernization efforts. Yet Capgemini continued winning contracts, including many awarded without competitive bidding. This August, the company secured a £200 million, five-year deal to migrate legacy data warehouses, and in June it won a contact center contract worth up to £600 million that could run until 2036—32 years after Aspire began.

A 2016 National Audit Office report described Aspire as delivering stable but costly IT systems, adding that "the contract has contributed to HMRC's technology becoming out of date." The spending watchdog noted HMRC was replacing Aspire to gain greater control over IT development and provision, with plans to work with more suppliers—including small and medium-sized enterprises—through shorter, more flexible contracts while avoiding extensions wherever feasible. An HMRC spokesperson told The Register that contract awards to Capgemini are fully compliant with UK procurement legislation and government policy, stating that while some strategic suppliers still play an important role in delivering critical services, the agency has shifted "from a small number of large legacy contracts to a more diverse supplier base."

The tax collector's continued reliance on Capgemini stems partly from the company's role building or operating systems under the original Aspire deal, creating a situation where it remains the incumbent provider for crucial platforms. In January 2022, HMRC awarded Capgemini a £51 million agreement as a sole supplier to support its Enterprise Tax Management Platform and Enterprise Operations services, both developed during Aspire. That same year, the company won a £214 million deal without competition to maintain legacy applications during decommissioning or modernization. In May 2024, HMRC handed Capgemini another contract valued at up to £245.5 million for legacy system support, plus a separate five-year agreement worth between £403 million and £574 million to operate the tax platform until June 2029. The agency is now preparing to award a contract worth up to £500 million by June next year for overhauling its National Insurance and PAYE systems, which were part of Aspire and where US-founded, Ireland-based Accenture has already received £100 million in non-competitive awards to continue support. Burnham's procurement policy faces an early test over whether overseas incumbents will keep securing lucrative work from HMRC. The challenge for any government trying to diversify suppliers is that legacy technology creates lock-in, and breaking dependencies requires upfront investment that budget pressures often discourage.