The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has launched a competition for its IT contacts, with a view to reducing costs.

It is looking to fill five vacancies over a seven-year period that will cover desktop services, datacentre and hosting, voice and data networks, application maintenance and support-integration services, according to an ITPro report.

The contracts are understood to be worth a total of £3 billion.

"We are committed to ensuring that future IT services continue to be provided in a way which delivers the best service to the citizen and maximum value for the taxpayer," commented Joe Harley, the DWP's chief information officer.

He added that the competitions will be conducted in accordance to public procurement regulations.

Desktop services is the first contract to be opened for competition, with the timing for the others to be determined by the DWP's need to sustain and improve its services for the public.

The NHS' Connect for Health programme was reported to have hit difficulties recently when Fujitsu pulled out of its multi-million pound contract to roll out new IT services for the south-east.