HMRC and Skyscape 2

The following open letter has been sent by email and by post to Phil Pavitt in his capacity as HMRC Director General Change, Security and Information with a copy to Lin Homer, Chief Executive, HMRC:

[Skyscape has subsequently changed its name to UKCloud: "London – August 1, 2016 – Skyscape Cloud Services Limited, the easy to adopt, easy to use and easy to leave assured cloud services company, has today renamed and relaunched as UKCloud Ltd (www.ukcloud.com), to reinforce the company’s exclusive focus on supporting the UK public sector in the digital transformation of services".]

Open letter [1] Phil Pavitt          Your ref. CETO /03531/2012 HMRC Director General Change, Security and Information 100 Parliament St London SW1A 2BQ          24 October 2012 Dear Mr Pavitt HMRC and Skyscape Cloud Services Ltd Thank you for your letter dated 22 October 2012 [2] in response to my letter to Lin Homer dated 11 October 2012 [3]. The point is well taken, of course, that for security reasons HMRC can’t say what data is held where. We're in we-can-neither-confirm-nor-deny territory here. It’s difficult but, given the bizarre nature of the Skyscape contract, HMRC are going to have to find some way to reassure the public about the security with which our tax records, both personal and corporate, are being held. “The data will continue to be kept in accordance with existing legislation and HMRC security policies”, you say. I should hope so, too – the public want, need, deserve and pay for nothing less. But your statement begs the question. The public is bound to assume that the data to be stored at Skyscape’s cloud computing facilities is the tax records of every individual and legal person in the country. What other data does HMRC have? And the public is bound to assume that our data is intended to be stored at Hartham Park, Corsham, Wilts SN13 0RP because that’s the address of the registered office of Skyscape Cloud Services Ltd and it’s the address of the registered office of its “ally” ARK Continuity Ltd and it’s the address of ARK’s Spring Park data centre as noted for everyone to see on ARK’s website [4]. If that isn’t a breach of security, what is? Skyscape is a young start-up, it hasn’t yet submitted any accounts to Companies House, it has no track record, it has only one director and he owns all the shares in the company. If the Government Procurement Service (GPS) and HMRC believe that Skyscape is an appropriate company to trust with the care of our tax records, then there is something wrong with GPS’s and HMRC’s selection criteria. CloudStore make the point that the inclusion of a company and its services in its on-line store is not a warranty of appropriateness. It’s up to the customer – in this case HMRC – to determine appropriateness. Eleanor Stewart, the Assistant Director of G-Cloud, says [5]: “as with everything on the G-Cloud framework the customer can determine whether they are happy with any associated risk at the point of selection”. The references to GPS and to CloudStore in your letter can provide the public with no comfort. You mention the Skyscape Cloud Alliance [6] in your letter. Goodness knows what ARK Continuity is doing in the Alliance. HMRC doesn’t promote itself as being in an alliance with Mapeley. Why does Skyscape expect the public to find it commercially persuasive to include its landlord in the Alliance? QinetiQ, VMware, Cisco and EMC on the other hand are all industry leaders and if HMRC had entered into a contract with a joint venture company involving them then we wouldn’t be having this correspondence. But you haven’t. HMRC have entered into a contract with a one-man start-up. That was the case before you wrote your letter and it remains the case subsequently. The question therefore persists, how can HMRC make such an odd-looking decision? How can they risk the nation’s tax records on Skyscape? There’s no joint venture company there for a Tax Inspector to get his or her teeth into. Just an “alliance”. What is an alliance in this case? The contract is to provide cloud computing services. “Cloud computing” means losing control [7]. Whitehall promotes cloud computing on the basis that it turns IT into a utility [8]. That is not attractive, as this month’s news about gas and electricity prices will confirm. None of us has control over the price our suppliers charge for gas and electricity at home or control over their staff. If HMRC enter into a cloud computing contract with any supplier, big or small, they will have the same problem. How can HMRC risk the nation’s tax records on cloud computing? Salesmen sometimes unfortunately make over-enthusiastic claims about cloud computing being more resilient, secure and efficient than the alternatives. Lawyers don’t believe them. Lawyers don’t use cloud computing. Lawyers are paid to keep their clients’ data under control and confidential. So are public authorities like HMRC. As I write, I note that the latest cloud computing débâcle is unfolding. Amazon are the biggest cloud computing suppliers in the world and they’ve just had a 12-hour outage [9]. Our tax records are currently stored on hundreds of servers at “multiple” HMRC offices, you say. Good. That looks secure. Much more secure than storing them all in one place with a one-man start-up in some sort of nugatory alliance. And, since you mention it, the allegedly dainty carbon footprint of cloud computing will be no consolation if our records go up in smoke. According to HMRC’s press release [10] the Skyscape contract will save £1 million a year on running costs. We need to be guided here by the National Audit Office (NAO) report on HMRC’s on-line filing [11]. The NAO examined HMRC’s £8 billion 10-year ASPIRE contract with Capgemini and said: HMRC uses a range of indicators to measure the performance of its ICT services, which include online services, and it measures availability that relates specifically to online filing. HMRC has a high-level view of the overall costs of ICT provision through the ASPIRE contract. It has been taking steps to improve that information and achieve cost savings. It does not yet have a detailed breakdown of the costs of online filing services, so it cannot benchmark those costs to assess their value for money. HMRC is currently negotiating with the ASPIRE contractors to obtain a clearer breakdown of the costs of ICT services provided. (p.8) Also: [HMRC] should proceed with its plans to identify ICT costs specific to online filing services and ensure that current negotiations with the ASPIRE contractors provide sufficient breakdown of cost information for regular benchmarking of costs. (p.13) In the circumstances, with the suppliers not even prepared to tell HMRC what they are charging for, some scepticism is in order about claims to be able to identify £1 million of on-line filing costs in among the £8,000 million. CESG have rescued the nation before from other-worldly decisions taken by Whitehall. The Home Office wanted to use DWP’s National Insurance number database as the National Identity Register for the ID cards scheme. CESG pointed out that it was inappropriate and that was the end of that [12]. Let’s hope that they repeat the trick in their review of Skyscape. I look forward to a small piece appearing in the technical press somewhere out of the way regretting that for security reasons which cannot be given the HMRC contract with Skyscape has had to be revoked. Yours sincerely David Moss cc      Lin Homer, Chief Executive, HMRC           Chartered Institute of Taxation           Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales [1] HMRC and Skyscape 2, http://www.dmossesq.com/2012/10/hmrc-and-skyscape-2.html [2]Things happen when Lin Homer's in the loop. Fast., http://www.dmossesq.com/2012/10/things-happen-when-lin-homers-in-loop.html [3]HMRC and Skyscape, http://www.dmossesq.com/2012/10/hmrc-and-skyscape.html [4]Spring Park map, http://www.arkcontinuity.co.uk/contact-spring-park.html [5].gov.uk hosting bought through G-Cloud, http://gcloud.civilservice.gov.uk/2012/09/18/first-iaas-purchase-completed/#comment-2029 [6]The Skyscape Cloud Alliance, http://www.skyscapecloud.com/about/the-skyscape-cloud-alliance [7]Cloud computing and the Gadarene lemmings of Whitehall, http://www.dmossesq.com/2012/10/cloud-computing-and-fashion-conscious.html [8]Cloud computing turns IT into a utility, and that's a good thing?, http://www.dmossesq.com/2012/10/cloud-computing-turns-it-into-utility.html [9]Amazon outage started small, snowballed into 12-hour event, http://www.networkworld.com/news/2012/102312-amazon-outage-263617.html [10]HMRC first for new IT contract, http://press.hmrc.gov.uk/Press-Releases/HMRC-first-for-new-IT-contract-680b1.aspx [11]HM Revenue & Customs – The expansion of online filing of tax returns, http://www.nao.org.uk//idoc.ashx?docId=cd237708-5c6b-472a-af13-f432f80d80cc&version=-1 [12]ID card scheme ditches DWP database, http://www.computerweekly.com/news/1280092192/ID-card-scheme-ditches-DWP-database

Updates:

24.5.12	Phil Pavitt says "we don't currently have ID authentication in UK government".
24.10.12	Letter emailed to Phil Pavitt and Lin Homer
25.10.12	Hard copy of letter posted to Phil Pavitt and Lin Homer, links sent to Eleanor Stewart, CIOT and ICAEW
28.10.12	Re last two paragraphs of letter, see Andy Smith affair.
4.11.12	US government argue that signing a cloud services agreement reduces your property rights in the data stored in the cloud, according to EFF.
13.11.12	Cloud computing, and GDS's fantasy strategy: "To which, all one can say is that there must be something wrong with the Cabinet Office, GPS and HMRC procurement criteria ...".
23.11.12	UK.gov to upgrade buying tool after mega cockup downs £1bn deal – Government Procurement Service computer system incapable of handling tenders for government procurement.
26.11.12	HMRC soon to be Pavittless – will Aviva store all our insurance details with Skyscape?

HMRC and Skyscape 2

The following open letter has been sent by email and by post to Phil Pavitt in his capacity as HMRC Director General Change, Security and Information with a copy to Lin Homer, Chief Executive, HMRC:

[Skyscape has subsequently changed its name to UKCloud: "London – August 1, 2016 – Skyscape Cloud Services Limited, the easy to adopt, easy to use and easy to leave assured cloud services company, has today renamed and relaunched as UKCloud Ltd (www.ukcloud.com), to reinforce the company’s exclusive focus on supporting the UK public sector in the digital transformation of services".]

G-Cloud, GDS, HMRC and Skyscape, the company with just one director, who owns all the shares – Whitehall SNAFU

The story so far ...

The Government Digital Service (GDS) have contracted with Skyscape Cloud Services Ltd to host the new unified central government website, GOV.UK, in the cloud.

Episode 1, Insanity – are they mad? Skyscape is a £1,000 company. Isn't that a bit small for this monumental responsibility?

Whitehall's G-Cloud team say this is an example of good practice, using small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) instead of the ponderous and expensive big boys.

Episode 2, Mendacity – are they lying? Skyscape claims to be in alliance with five other companies whose combined turnover is £43.3 billion and who have over 100,000 staff. Isn't that a bit big for an SME?

Now read on ...

[Skyscape has subsequently changed its name to UKCloud: "London – August 1, 2016 – Skyscape Cloud Services Limited, the easy to adopt, easy to use and easy to leave assured cloud services company, has today renamed and relaunched as UKCloud Ltd (www.ukcloud.com), to reinforce the company’s exclusive focus on supporting the UK public sector in the digital transformation of services".]

Episode 3, Confusion – what's going on?

HMRC
Now HMRC have signed up with Skyscape as well as GDS. Phil Pavitt, HMRC's CIO (Chief Information Officer) says that the shift to cloud ...

... will save over £1 million a year in running costs and will increase reliability and security of HMRC's internal IT services. The Skyscape contract is a major step for HMRC in moving away from traditional ways of working with large service providers. And it's a great example of how we're exploring smarter, more innovative solutions that make life simpler for us and help us provide a better deal for our customers ...

• Will Mr Pavitt's head roll if the Skyscape contract doesn't "save over £1 million a year in running costs"?
• Suppose Skyscape put their prices up?
• Suppose Skyscape go bust – it's only a £1,000 company after all?
• Suppose Skyscape's servers fall over for a fortnight like the Royal Bank of Scotland's did earlier this summer?
• Does HMRC have good enough book-keeping systems to know if £1 million has been saved and where and why?
• HMRC is no SME – its ASPIRE contract with Capgemini and Fujitsu is worth £8 billion over ten years. Is it worth taking the risk of using Skyscape to save one eight-thousandth eight-hundredth of the value of just one contract among many?
• ...

We know the answer to one of those questions. The National Audit Office have told us that when HMRC asked their suppliers to be a bit more explicit what they were charging for on their invoices, the suppliers refused. HMRC pay anyway, whatever it is they're paying for.

God, but Lin Homer's got a lot of work to do.

Skyscape
Never mind all those questions for the moment, the point at issue is that Mr Pavitt thinks that Skyscape is a small company.

How small?

We already know that it has only £1,000 of paid up share capital. And that the company is too young to have filed any accounts yet, so we have no idea about its P&L and balance sheet. The G-Cloud team have approved Skyscape to sell its wares on HMG's Cloudstore, GDS have bought from them and so have HMRC – how did they satisfy themselves as to Skyscape's commercial health?

They may not have filed any accounts but Skyscape have filed an annual return, as at 3 May 2012, according to which:

• The registered address is Hartham Park, Hartham, Corsham, Wilts SN13 0RP
• The company has one director – Mr Jeremy Robin Sanders
• And one shareholder – Mr Jeremy Robin Sanders

GDS and HMRC haven't signed up with one company so much as with one man. One man owns all the shares and is the only director of the company which hosts the central government website and hosts some of HMRC's data. One man. What's going on?

GOV.UK depends on one man. Mr Sanders. Bits of HMRC depend on one man. Mr Sanders. The G-Cloud team have approved one man to sell his wares on the Cloudstore. Mr Sanders. The UK is a big, complicated, modern state with 1,000 years of democracy behind it and government contracts affecting the entire population are signed with just one man. Mr Sanders.

While that's sinking in, en passant, note that Mr Sanders didn't always own all the shares in Skyscape. Mr Jeffery (sic) Paul Thomas used to own one share. Then on 19 April 2012 he transferred it to Mr Sanders. You won't forget that name, will you – Jeffery (sic) Paul Thomas.

The Skyscape Cloud Alliance
The following note appears on the Skyscape website ...

SKYSCAPE CLOUD ALLIANCE The Skyscape Cloud Alliance partners; QinetiQ ,VMware, Cisco, EMC, and Ark Continuity bring together an end to end cloud solution which is Skyscape. This Alliance also provides a collaborative resource which drives innovation and our technical product development programme.

What does it mean?

If it means that Skyscape is a joint venture company set up by the allies, then Skyscape has the backing of £43.3 billion of annual revenue and 100,000 staff worldwide. Which means that it's not really an SME at all.

But it doesn't say that. The five companies are called "partners". But Skyscape isn't a partnership, it's a limited company.

Presumably Skyscape haven't just put these names on their website because it looks good. Because it's handy for marketing. If they used these names without the allies' permission, they'd be sued. There must be some sort of a commercial arrangement between Skyscape, QinetiQ and the others. But what sort of arrangement?

Skyscape are not mentioned in the accounts of QinetiQ or VMware or any of the allies. The nature of this commercial arrangement is a mystery. A gentlemen's agreement of some sort, perhaps? Surely that's not enough for G-Cloud, GDS and HMRC to rely on.

ARK Continuity
ARK Continuity is the odd one out among the Skyscape allies. It's relatively tiny. According to its annual return as at 16 December 2011:

• The registered address is Hartham Park, Hartham, Corsham, Wilts SN13 0RP, the same as Skyscape's.
• It has a company secretary and three directors – two bankers plus Mr Jeffrey (sic) Paul Thomas, possibly the ex-shareholder of Skyscape.
• It has two classes of 1p ordinary shares, A and B, 800 of each issued, so it has £16 of share capital, not all paid up at the date of the return.
• Revcap Properties 25 Ltd owns all 800 A ordinaries and Mr Jeffrey (sic) Paul Thomas owns 320 of the B ordinaries.

According to the 30 April 2011 Ark Continuity annual report and accounts, the two bankers are appointed as directors to represent the interests of Revcap Properties 25 Ltd, the 75% majority shareholder, the ultimate parent company of Revcap Properties 25 Ltd is Real Estate Venture Capital Partners LLP and:

The principal activity of the company and the group is the design, construction and operation of data centres

Nearly finally, on 9 August 2012, ARK Continuity appointed Baroness Elizabeth Lydia Manningham-Buller a director. The Rt Hon The Baroness Manningham-Buller was of course, formerly, the Director General of MI5.

On their website, ARK Continuity are naturally proud of their Spring Park data centre. They're a property company. Of course they're proud.

That's Spring Park at Hartham Park, Corsham, Wilts SN13 0RP, they provide a map of how to get there and they say that:

Spring Park affords occupiers the opportunity to embrace best practice and sustainable principles in the design, construction, engineering and operation of their data centres Spring Park is one of Europe's premier data centre locations. Strategically positioned and built on a legacy of over 50 years investment in critical national infrastructure, Spring Park comprises 14.79ha of surface land, 9.29ha of underground, access to 114MVA diverse power supply and c93,000m² of consented data centre and office development Located one mile from the A4 and 8 miles from J17 of the M4 between Swindon and Bristol, the site is adjacent to secure MoD facilities and benefits from significant connectivity infrastructure To see the location map click here To watch the History of Spring Park click here

The early footage of the Romans quarrying stone at Corsham to build the new town of Bath in the green belt is fascinating but someone should tell ARK about security. The Rt Hon The Baroness Manningham-Buller, perhaps?

The MoD might prefer it if ARK Continuity didn't tell people where their secure facilities are. GDS and HMRC, too.

And let's hope to God that that's not where GOV.UK is being hosted and where HMRC have stored their records. Because otherwise, now, thanks to ARK Continuity's website, everyone will know.

G-Cloud, GDS, HMRC and Skyscape, the company with just one director, who owns all the shares – Whitehall SNAFU

The story so far ...

The Government Digital Service (GDS) have contracted with Skyscape Cloud Services Ltd to host the new unified central government website, GOV.UK, in the cloud.

Episode 1, Insanity – are they mad? Skyscape is a £1,000 company. Isn't that a bit small for this monumental responsibility?

Whitehall's G-Cloud team say this is an example of good practice, using small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) instead of the ponderous and expensive big boys.

Episode 2, Mendacity – are they lying? Skyscape claims to be in alliance with five other companies whose combined turnover is £43.3 billion and who have over 100,000 staff. Isn't that a bit big for an SME?

Now read on ...

[Skyscape has subsequently changed its name to UKCloud: "London – August 1, 2016 – Skyscape Cloud Services Limited, the easy to adopt, easy to use and easy to leave assured cloud services company, has today renamed and relaunched as UKCloud Ltd (www.ukcloud.com), to reinforce the company’s exclusive focus on supporting the UK public sector in the digital transformation of services".]

Whitehall – misfeasance in public office

Dame Helen Ghosh has been Permanent Secretary at the Home Office since 1 January 2011. Before her, it was Sir David Normington. And before him, it was Sir John Gieve who signed the accounts.

On 21 July 2006, the Times published Accounts for Home Office adrift by trillions:

A National Audit Office review of transactions carried out on the Home’s Office’s financial IT system found problems with the data. “When the gross transaction value of debits and credits within this data was totalled, they each amounted to £26,527,108,436,994: almost 2,000 times higher than the Home Office’s gross expenditure for 2004-05 and approximately one and a half times higher than the estimated gross domestic product of the entire planet,” a note from the National Audit Office said. “This suggests something has gone seriously awry. We have yet to receive an explanation for what has happened,” the note added. Last night Richard Bacon, a Conservative member of the [Public Accounts Committee], said: “In any parish council or cricket club the person responsible would have been out on his ear. What actually happened was that Sir John was promoted to become Deputy Governor of the Bank of England in charge of financial stability in the banking system. “You might reasonably expect to see this in a Gilbert and Sullivan opera, but not in real life.”

Make the most of any smile that brought to your lips.

On 11 November 2011, the National Audit Office published HM Revenue & Customs – The expansion of online filing of tax returns.

Unpromising material, granted. It repays attention nonetheless.

All of HMRC's IT to handle tax returns is supplied under contract. The contract is called ASPIRE and the contractors are Capgemini and Fujitsu. ASPIRE is worth £8 billion over 10 years. The NAO are talking about how HMRC spends 8,000 million of our pounds. Under the heading Operational performance, they say (pp.8-9):

HMRC uses a range of indicators to measure the performance of its ICT services, which include online services, and it measures availability that relates specifically to online filing. HMRC has a high-level view of the overall costs of ICT provision through the ASPIRE contract. It has been taking steps to improve that information and achieve cost savings. It does not yet have a detailed breakdown of the costs of online filing services, so it cannot benchmark those costs to assess their value for money. HMRC is currently negotiating with the ASPIRE contractors to obtain a clearer breakdown of the costs of ICT services provided.

What are the NAO telling us?

For anyone who missed it, the NAO provide a second chance (p.11) when they say that HMRC ...

... should proceed with its plans to identify ICT costs specific to online filing services and ensure that current negotiations with the ASPIRE contractors provide sufficient breakdown of cost information for regular benchmarking of costs.

HMRC has "a high-level view of the overall costs" of IT but not "a detailed breakdown". The contractors won't give them a detailed breakdown. HMRC are having to negotiate with the contractors to get a detailed breakdown. HMRC don't know what they're getting for our money. They just keep paying. The contractors don't tell HMRC what they're invoicing for. They just keep demanding money. Lots of money. £8,000,000,000 of our money.

This isn't Gilbert and Sullivan. This is Mario Puzo.

----------

The exegesis above is due to Tony Collins, investigative journalist and hero.

He reminisces about an earlier incidence of this irresponsible, unbusinesslike, spineless, craven, beholden behaviour of Whitehall's:

Several years ago the Conservative MP Richard Bacon asked criminal justice officials for a breakdown of costs on the “Libra” contract for magistrates’ courts IT. The Department didn’t know. So it referred Bacon to Fujitsu, Libra’s main supplier. Fujitsu eventually provided a breakdown so vague – with high-level categories such as “network services” – that Bacon had little choice but to ask the same questions repeatedly to find out how public funds were being spent with Fujitsu. In the end Bacon failed – and he had little support from departmental officials.

It's an ugly and horrifying subject that no-one wants to dwell on. Which may be why Mr Collins forgets another case he himself reported, the case of the NHS's £11 billion+ NPfIT contract:

I understand that when auditors carried out a check at NHS Connecting for Health they found box-loads of invoices that had not been analysed. Auditors found that the invoices were being paid as they came in, without a reconciliation of what was being charged against what was being delivered, and without a check on the extent to which payments related to sign-off of systems by local trusts.

Richard Bacon MP, hero, has been active on all three projects – Libra, NPfIT and ASPIRE – together with Tony Collins, trying to get value for money for the public and, so far, failing.

Amyas Morse, Comptroller and Auditor General at the NAO, is unearthing tons of evidence of negligence.

Whitehall says it's doing nothing illegal, which may be true, but it's not the responsible behaviour we have a right to expect and, for the moment, the money keeps pouring out of the bucket and into the pockets of the contractors and the management consultants and the PFI financiers.

Nothing illegal? Is there a lawyer in the house? Is there a case here to bring charges of misfeasance in public office?

----------

Updated 8 November 2013:

DWP untouched by MPs’ criticisms over Universal Credit IT project
Did DWP mislead MPs and media over Universal Credit?
DWP cover-up over Universal Credit IT project?
More IT-based megaprojects derail amid claims all is well

Updated 9 November 2015

Police funding sums are totally wrong, Home Office admits Police and crime commissioners accused the Home Office of being unable to add up after a senior civil servant admitted that the wrong data was applied in its planned overhaul of the way in which cash grants are distributed to the 43 forces in England and Wales ... In the case of Scotland Yard, the Home Office grant estimate was said to be wrong by more than £100 million ... Andrew White, the chief executive of Devon and Cornwall’s PCC office, uncovered the discrepancies after his own analysts were unable to make the Home Office figures add up. He said that he received a letter admitting the mistake yesterday from Mary Callum, the director-general for crime and policing ...

After signing the £26½ trillion Home Office accounts (please see above) Sir John Gieve went on to become a Deputy Governor of the Bank of England. Can Mary Callum follow this tradition?


Updated 13.4.16

UK borders safe?

A dutiful Whitehall under the political control of Westminster?

High standards of misfeasance maintained, particularly at the Home Office:

Top civil servant kicked out of Parliament committee for 'unsatisfactory' answers to MPs A senior Whitehall mandarin refused to say whether the UK Border Force budget has been cut – before being kicked out of a hearing with MPs for giving "unsatisfactory" answers. Oliver Robbins was threatened with being held in contempt and repeatedly criticised when he side-stepped a string of questions put to him by the home affairs select committee. Mr Robbins, the Home office second permanent secretary, was asked nine times by Keith Vaz, the committee chairman, whether the borders budget had been finalised, without receiving an answer. Twenty minutes later Mr Robbins was told to leave the session ...

Updated 29.6.16

Permanent Secretary appointed to lead the new EU unit in Cabinet Office 29 June 2016 Oliver Robbins has been appointed as the head of the new EU Unit in the Cabinet Office. Oliver will have responsibility for supporting Cabinet in the examination of options for our future relationship outside the EU, with Europe, and the rest of the world as well as responsibility for the wider European and Global Issues Secretariat ... Mark Sedwill, Permanent Secretary at the Home Office, said: "... I can think of no better person to lead this work than Oliver Robbins, who, in the past year as Second Permanent Secretary for borders, immigration and citizenship, has made such a positive impact in the department, and developed considerable expertise in many of the issues central to negotiating British withdrawal and establishing a new position in the world".

Let's hope that Mr Robbins will be a little more forthcoming than he was with the Home Affairs Committee.

Whitehall – misfeasance in public office

Dame Helen Ghosh has been Permanent Secretary at the Home Office since 1 January 2011. Before her, it was Sir David Normington. And before him, it was Sir John Gieve who signed the accounts.

On 21 July 2006, the Times published Accounts for Home Office adrift by trillions:

A National Audit Office review of transactions carried out on the Home’s Office’s financial IT system found problems with the data. “When the gross transaction value of debits and credits within this data was totalled, they each amounted to £26,527,108,436,994: almost 2,000 times higher than the Home Office’s gross expenditure for 2004-05 and approximately one and a half times higher than the estimated gross domestic product of the entire planet,” a note from the National Audit Office said. “This suggests something has gone seriously awry. We have yet to receive an explanation for what has happened,” the note added. Last night Richard Bacon, a Conservative member of the [Public Accounts Committee], said: “In any parish council or cricket club the person responsible would have been out on his ear. What actually happened was that Sir John was promoted to become Deputy Governor of the Bank of England in charge of financial stability in the banking system. “You might reasonably expect to see this in a Gilbert and Sullivan opera, but not in real life.”

Make the most of any smile that brought to your lips.