UK Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs signs £74M contract with Cognizant

Cognizant has been chosen by the UK’s Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) to support the delivery of business change and provide improved services to the government organisation.

Cognizant will implement, under the Application Development and Maintenance Support (ADMS) services program, a new online services and digital platform capability, which can be reused across the core Defra group, including its partner organisations such as the Environment Agency, the Animal Plant Health Agency, and the Rural Payments Agency. This aims to help provide consistency and a streamlined journey for Defra’s clients by improving processes and the quality of Defra’s digital services. 

“Defra is pleased to enhance its relationship with Cognizant who will play a key role in supporting its ambitious digital service delivery portfolio over the forthcoming years,” said Colin Banno-Thornton, Director of Digital Delivery, Defra. “The contract covers application development services and will provide crucial capacity and capability to support Defra in delivering its digital delivery portfolio in a cost-effective and sustainable way. We look forward to working with the Cognizant team to deliver essential digital services to help Defra and its arms lengths bodies to achieve its strategic objectives.”

“We are delighted to have further expanded our strategic partnership with Defra which demonstrates Cognizant’s ability to deliver large and complex projects within Government,” said Rohit Gupta, Managing Director, UK&I, Cognizant. “Defra is on a mission to improve the way it does business with its clients and in doing so, the world at large. This project will support the delivery of an outstanding knowledge capability for our natural environment which will help Defra enhance the UK’s landscapes, improve biodiversity and encourage innovation.”