Credit: Gerd Altmann/Pixabay

The collapse of UKCloud did not did cause any “unexpected disruptions to public services” and will be no need for additional public funding, a minister has announced. 

The public sector-specialised hosting firm and its parent company Virtual Infrastructure Ltd was placed into liquidation on 25 October. The following day, minister for the Cabinet Office Jeremy Quin announced that the central department may incur two “contingent liabilities” to support the work of the official receiver overseeing the liquidation process and “any claims made against him in respect” of these duties.

In a written update provided to the House of Commons, Quin said that the receiver “has not been notified of any potential claims that may require a call on the indemnity.

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“All UKCloud Ltd customers have now successfully migrated their services on to alternative platforms with no unexpected disruptions to public services,” he added. “As such, it is deemed unlikely any claims on the indemnity will be made post-liquidation. We, therefore, assess that it is unlikely that there will be any cost to the public purse as a result of this contingent liability.”

The liquidation is expected to be completed during the first half of next year, at the conclusion of a process that has brought with it a “peak funding requirement” of £20m.

Little more than a week after UKCloud was placed into liquidation, customers received invoices informing them of an immediate sevenfold increase on their contracted price. Speaking to PublicTechnology at the time, some criticised government – which was understood to have budgeted for about six weeks of financial support – for failing to take sufficient support to ensure delivery of citizen services was not imperilled.

In his latest update, Quin said that the government can now confirm it has “successfully enabled the continuity of public services”.