March 2026 snapshot

Falcon Programme

Government Transformation and Service Delivery

Record date: 31 March 2026

Whole-life cost: £23.1m
Published schedule: 01/05/2022 – 31/12/2026
NISTA delivery confidence: Not disclosed
Senior responsible owner: Steve Holborow

What the project is for

The Falcon programme is an important initiative to update the Cabinet Office's main IT systems. We are moving our staff from Google Workspace to Microsoft 365 (M365). The initial approach was for the Cabinet Office to build its own new IT system for this change. However, after review, we found this was not the most cost-effective option. We have now approved a new plan. This involves moving our digital services to a shared government service called Integrated Corporate Services (ICS), which is managed by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ). While this new approach means the project will take a bit longer to complete, it will save money in the long run by using an existing government service. Why is this change important? The Cabinet Office is the central headquarters for the government. Currently, we use Google Workspace, which is different from the Microsoft systems used by most of our partners both inside and outside of government. This difference can make working together and sharing information difficult. Moving to Microsoft 365 will help us work more effectively and efficiently. It's becoming more and more important for us to collaborate easily with people from other organisations, who might be in different places, using different devices, and working at different times. This change will also allow us to use new Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools that are being developed across government. What will the Falcon programme deliver? The programme has two main goals: A new IT system for the Cabinet Office: This will include a new Microsoft 365 setup, built and managed by Integrated Corporate Services. Moving our staff and their data: We will carefully move our employees and their information from Google Workspace to Microsoft 365. This will bring us in line with the rest of government and open up better ways to work together.

Departmental delivery commentary

Compared to financial year 24/25 Q4, the NISTA/SRO Delivery Confidence Assessment (DCA) rating at 25/26 Q4 improved to AMBER. This is primarily due to the following factors: - Refined Cyber Assurance and incident response mechanisms - Finalised the data migration strategy - Obtained approval for resourcing and budgets - Delivered platform go live, and pre-pilot user testing. The following area's are area's of focus to move the programme from Amber to Green: - Defining the future operating model & support processes - Improving the programme's and its partners current responsiveness to change

Schedule

Compared to financial year 24/25-Q4, the project's end-date at 25/26-Q4 has increased from Dec 2026 to Dec 2027. This is primarily due to the following factors: The platform testing in the prepilot, along with subsequent lessons learned, involved replanning. This replanning now includes additional time for the migration to the ICS Shared Services operating model and Data migration. Migrations are by Business Unit, in tranches selected by size and complexity through to December 2027 - Close

Cost

Compared to financial year 24/25 Q4, the programme's departmentally agreed whole life cycle cost at 25/26 Q4 increased. This is primarily due to a revised business case submission for Microsoft Licencing and Copilot commitment. The programme scope now includes the inclusion of Copilot and resulted in certainty over the M365 E5 cost uplifts, This resulted in a marginal increase on the baseline cost.

Benefits

Q4 decreased. This is primarily due to a change in Cabinet Office user numbers reducing benefits and a revision to the migration rollout plan meaning benefits associated with previous financial years were not realised. A revised programme business case submission in the summer will rebaseline the benefit position over a 5 year period.