Westminister Council, on behalf on other councils, has put out a tender to outsource back-office functions, in a bid to improve efficiency and cut costs.

The tender is part of the Athena Programme, which is a pan-London initiative which aims to create a regional single ICT platform for public sector organisations.

The tender states: The Council, the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea ("the Tri-Borough Authorities") have aligned themselves as strategic partners and have embarked on a number of different activities to streamline services and deliver savings. These activities include a programme of work looking at an outsourced service (including the hosting and where applicable the processing of transactions) of the back-office services which are the subject of this notice, namely, finance and procurement, HR and payroll, e-Sourcing, property asset data management and business intelligence ("back-office services").

The Council is undertaking this procurement on behalf of itself and each of the other Tri-Borough Authorities and the following London Borough Councils: Bexley; Bromley; Camden; City of London Corporation; Ealing; Hackney; Hammersmith and Fulham; Hillingdon; Hounslow; Islington; Kensington and Chelsea; Kingston upon Thames; Newham; Richmond upon Thames; Southwark; Sutton; Tower Hamlets; Waltham Forest; Wandsworth, JVC (as defined below), any arms' length management organisations, subsidiaries or other companies or businesses under the control or influence of any of the aforementioned London Boroughs and any Schools within the control of any of the aforementioned London Boroughs (each a "participating authority"). The Council will enter into the Framework on behalf of itself and each of the other participating authorities.