New chair and board member appointed as annual accounts show GovCo delivered £40m of IT services in FY18

The Department for Work and Pensions’ in-house IT company BPDTS Ltd has begun 2019 with a boardroom shake-up, with two additions to its top table – including a new chair.

This week BPTDS announced that the DWP’s former chief digital and information officer Mayank Prakash is stepping down from his directorship of the government company, following his departure from the civil service. 

Joining the board of directors for a five-year term is former BP and Barclays executive Valerie Gordon-Walker, who will serve BPDTS in a non-executive capacity.

Also arriving in the boardroom is Jeremy Moore, who has been appointed by work and pensions secretary Amber Rudd as chair of BPDTS Ltd. Moore previously spent about 16 years at DWP, rising to a role as director general of strategy, policy, and analysis before his retirement from in 2017. Earlier in his career he worked at HM Treasury, the Department for Education, and the Student Loans Company.

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AT BPDTS he replaces Claire Johnston, who held the role since of chair since the company was incorporated on 24 August 2016. She was appointed to a three-year term, but the GovCo’s recently published annual accounts show that she resigned from the BPDTS board exactly one year ahead of schedule. 

Since 24 August 2018, existing non-exec director Helen John has served as chair. Moore will now take over on a five-year term that began on 1 January.

He said: “I am delighted and honoured to join BPDTS at a key point in its growth and look forward to working with all colleagues and stakeholders to deliver IT and related services to support DWP in its hugely important role.”

BPDTS – whose name stands for Benefits Pension Digital and Technology Services – was established by the DWP in to take over the delivery of a range of digital and IT security services that were previously outsourced by the department to HPE. In the months that followed, about 380 of the IT company’s staff were transferred to BPDTS under the TUPE employment regulations.

As of 31 March 2018, the GovCo has 399 employees. 

In the 2017/18 fiscal year – its first full year in operation – BPTDS delivered about £42.4m of IT services to the DWP, the annual accounts show.

In addition to the non-exec boardroom arrivals, in November BPDTS added to its executive team with the appointment of Peter Dewfall as head of digital service management. He was previously employed by IT services giant DXC, where he oversaw various engagements with the Ministry of Defence.