The Home Office has completed the largest order to date for the government’s G-Cloud framework, and signed a contract with hosting provider Skyscape worth £1.5m for the next year.

Skyscape will host the Home Office recruitment Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) checking services, more officially known as the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS). The service will go live early next year.

Members of the government’s G-Cloud team, including Denise McDonagh, who leads the G-Cloud programme and is also the IT director at the Home Office, refused to comment on the contract, despite its notable size.

Phil Dawson, Skyscape’s chief executive, said: “Our platform as a service offering will help the Home Office to dramatically reduce capital expenditure, and also facilitate savings in operational costs and time.”

So far, sales to the government using the G-Cloud have topped £18m and this has included 911 different contracts being signed with 700 suppliers, offering more than 5,000 services. G-Cloud sales have particularly skyrocketed this year, increasing by £14m since January, partly due to the government’s Cloud First policy.

The G-Cloud programme was launched in February 2012 with the aim of driving the uptake of cloud computing in the public sector. The online system allows the public sector to rent the use of services as needed and do away with lengthy contracts.

The system also allows SMBs to sell to government departments in equal capacity to larger enterprises.