Government’s relationship with digital technology suppliers

Public Accounts Committee Closed Inquiry
Opened: 15 Jan 2025 Closed: 21 Aug 2025 Parliament page
At least £14bn a year is spent by government on procuring its digital services. Effective use of technology suppliers in this area is essential to any ambitions to digitally transform government and best enable it to plan for and use future technology. In 2022, the Government set out a roadmap … Read more
28 Recommendations
6 Conclusions
1 Report
1 Oral session
1 Letter
1 Event
Activity timeline 4 events
18 Sep
2025
Report published
6 Jun
2025
Report published
27 Mar
2025
Correspondence
27 Feb
2025
Oral evidence
Oral evidence sessions 1 session
27 Feb 2025
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Andrew Forzani · Cabinet Office Andrew Forzani · Ministry of Defence Cat Little · Cabinet Office Clare Gibbs · Cabinet Office David Knott · National Lottery Community Fund Sarah Munby · Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
Recommendations & Conclusions
34 results
2 Conclusion
27th Report - Government’s relatio…
Set out Digital Commercial Centre of Excellence's plans and resource balance for activities.
The Cabinet Office and DSIT have many expectations for the Digital Commercial Centre of Excellence to deliver the large–scale improvements needed to current digital commercial activities, as well as its existing aims. Government’s current digital commercial approaches and practices require … Read more
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3 Conclusion
27th Report - Government’s relatio…
Develop a comprehensive plan for securing government's digital commercial skills and detailing playbook improvements.
Cabinet Office and DSIT’s approach to preparing for the opportunities and risks presented by new technologies is not yet being developed alongside addressing more immediate digital procurement challenges. Government faces uncertain but profound technological changes, particularly around artificial intelligence, and … Read more
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4 Conclusion
27th Report - Government’s relatio…
Ensure departments acquire necessary digital commercial skills and overhaul digital expert ratios.
GCF’s current plans for training to build digital commercial expertise across the civil service are insufficient to bring about the transformative change needed to improve government’s digital commercial activity. GCF acknowledges that government needs to do more to build digital … Read more
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5 Conclusion
27th Report - Government’s relatio…
Set out how to ensure data and capability for informed technology supplier spending decisions.
Government’s ability to get the best deals with technology suppliers is being hampered by its lack of knowledge of what it is spending or its future needs. Government estimates that it spends over £14 billion each year on digital commercial … Read more
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6 Conclusion
27th Report - Government’s relatio…
Design a detailed commercial construct for cross-government digital technology procurement.
Government is underestimating how difficult it will be to consolidate its buying power centrally when procuring digital technology across government, in a way that will give it maximum leverage. Spending over £14 billion annually on digital technology suppliers gives government … Read more
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1 Conclusion
27th Report - Government’s relatio…
Committee scrutinises government's relationship and engagement with technology suppliers.
On the basis of a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General, we took evidence from the Cabinet Office and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) on government’s relationship with technology suppliers.1
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7 Recommendation
27th Report - Government’s relatio…
Government's technology market approach lags, requiring tailored sourcing strategies.
We therefore asked how government was keeping up with the pace of change in technology markets, and when we could expect a coherent strategy in response. DSIT recognised that there was currently a gap between the market in which it … Read more
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8 Recommendation
27th Report - Government’s relatio…
Dedicated staff for managing large technology suppliers remain insufficient across government.
Despite the technology market being dominated by large suppliers and changes in how they choose to negotiate and exercise leverage with government, we noted that GCF only had 15 people dedicated to the full–time management of the 19 largest technology … Read more
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9 Recommendation
27th Report - Government’s relatio…
Ensure greater digital expertise, accountability, and training for government procurement staff.
To maximise the value obtained from digital procurements, departments need to ensure that digital people are sufficiently involved, as well as a range of project delivery, finance and legal teams. This entails more than just working collaboratively; it needs to … Read more
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10 Recommendation
27th Report - Government’s relatio…
Lack of clear accountability and ownership for digital procurement improvements across government.
We observed that it felt like procurement and digital commercial activity sits in a lot of places and different organisations. We therefore asked whether there was a clear sense of who was ultimately responsible for delivering the improvements to digital … Read more
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11 Recommendation
27th Report - Government’s relatio…
Government establishes Digital Commercial Centre of Excellence to enhance digital procurement.
In January 2025, the government published its ‘Blueprint for modern digital government’. This announced the creation of a new Digital Commercial Centre of Excellence with an objective to “identify opportunities for further reform and improvements needed to enable tech startups, … Read more
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12 Recommendation
27th Report - Government’s relatio…
Centre of Excellence expected to refresh digital playbook and produce sourcing strategy
During our evidence session, the Cabinet Office and DSIT identified a range of other areas that they expected the new Centre of Excellence to contribute to. For example, the GCF recognised that it needed to do “a lot more” to … Read more
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13 Recommendation
27th Report - Government’s relatio…
DSIT's authority questioned regarding Centre of Excellence's impact on departmental spending
The Cabinet Office and DSIT told us that the role of the Centre of Excellence will include working further with departments, for example to help them produce much stronger forecast data on what they are intending to spend, and helping … Read more
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14 Recommendation
27th Report - Government’s relatio…
Government urgently needs to build digital commercial skills for complex procurement and cloud services
We asked how government could manage its relationships with large technology suppliers, particularly given concerns about lack of competition or rising costs.20 DSIT told us that it needed to build government’s capability in some specific areas of digital procurement, as … Read more
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15 Recommendation
27th Report - Government’s relatio…
Centre of Excellence to be fully staffed with 24 digital experts by March 2025
The Cabinet Office said that the next step will be to fully staff up resource for the Centre of Excellence in DSIT and ensure that it has the capacity across digital and commercial teams to operate, which would be taking … Read more
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16 Recommendation
27th Report - Government’s relatio…
Government faces urgent need to develop digital skills for future and address legacy systems
Government faces uncertain but profound technological changes, particularly around artificial intelligence, and recognises that it rapidly needs to develop the skills to deliver the next generation of programmes for digitally enabled change. At the same time, it needs to bring … Read more
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17 Recommendation
27th Report - Government’s relatio…
Resolving legacy digital systems requires diverse, scarce skills for future technological advancements
We therefore asked how DSIT intended to resolve the issues surrounding legacy digital systems. DSIT told us that the challenges of the legacy environment required many skills to resolve, not just digital skills, many of which were “very scarce”. It … Read more
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18 Recommendation
27th Report - Government’s relatio…
Cabinet Office lacks plan for developing specialist digital skills and commercial capability
The NAO found that Cabinet Office does not have a plan for how it will develop the specialist digital skills or commercial capability required. In an area as important as digital procurement, it found that it was essential that government … Read more
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19 Recommendation
27th Report - Government’s relatio…
Cabinet Office proposes civil service upskilling package, but digital skills for commercial staff remain a challenge
Cabinet Office also told us that it will work on a “comprehensive package of upskilling, capability and assurance” across the wider civil service to ensure that it could act as an intelligent customer. But it noted that this was an … Read more
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20 Recommendation
27th Report - Government’s relatio…
Require Chief Commercial Officer to develop and implement plan for digitally upskilling 6,000 GCF staff
We recognised that the Government Chief Commercial Officer was new in post but noted that it was reasonable to expect them to have considered how they intended to address issues surrounding digital commercial skills. We therefore asked how the new … Read more
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21 Recommendation
27th Report - Government’s relatio…
Digital, Data and Technology Playbook lacks detail on assessing large project technical feasibility
The government has published a ‘Digital, data and technology playbook’, which sets out key policies and guidance for how digital projects are assessed, procured and delivered.33 We asked whether this would be the primary tool for driving some of the … Read more
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22 Recommendation
27th Report - Government’s relatio…
Government's digital commercial playbook requires significant enhancement and broader consultation for effectiveness.
The GCF accepted that the playbook needed to be enhanced and improved, and said that in doing so it would involve GDS. It explained that its aim was to ensure that the playbook was “really fit for purpose”, in terms … Read more
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23 Recommendation
27th Report - Government’s relatio…
Develop comprehensive training programmes for government commercial professionals focused on digital commercial skills.
Providing appropriate training is a key element of developing the digital commercial skills that government needs. The NAO report found that government did not have training for digital commercial skills. It noted that in 2023, GCF launched a digital commercial … Read more
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24 Recommendation
27th Report - Government’s relatio…
Government's existing commercial training programmes lack sufficient focus on core digital commercial skills.
We therefore asked why this was the case, and whether this created a skills gap. GCF told us that “a significant amount of commercial training and development” went on across government. It explained that this was more general and applied … Read more
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25 Recommendation
27th Report - Government’s relatio…
Government acknowledges urgent need for enhanced digital commercial skills but lacks a clear plan.
We asked the Cabinet Office the extent to which it felt that government was “moving from a basic digital world to an evolved digital world” and whether addressing issues with digital procurement, at the speed needed, could help this transition. … Read more
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26 Recommendation
27th Report - Government’s relatio…
Digital commercial expertise is unevenly distributed across government departments, lacking universal provision.
We observed that our predecessor Committee saw examples where departments made mistakes in designing and procuring digital programmes, particularly where legacy technology was involved. We were concerned that some larger departments are better served with digital skills than some of … Read more
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27 Recommendation
27th Report - Government’s relatio…
Government's digital negotiation expertise with 'big tech' suppliers is inconsistent and ineffectively deployed.
We asked whether government had the digital expertise needed to negotiate with suppliers and global ‘big tech’ corporations. The Cabinet Office told us that this was a “complex and big–scale set of challenges” and that the picture was “mixed”. It … Read more
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28 Recommendation
27th Report - Government’s relatio…
Government is not embedding digital culture and senior expertise fast enough across departments.
Successful procurement programmes require departments to have digital commercial experts at senior level, and governance arrangements to ensure that senior leaders are equipped to understand the issues being raised and the options available to manage risks.47 DSIT told us that … Read more
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29 Recommendation
27th Report - Government’s relatio…
Government lacks precise data on digital procurement spend and future demand pipeline.
Government lacks data on spend and the pipeline of supply and demand. Available estimates from third parties suggest that government spends at least £14 billion annually on digital procurement, but government has not been able to provide a more precise … Read more
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30 Recommendation
27th Report - Government’s relatio…
New digital data platform will improve spending data but requires further enhancement for analysis.
We asked how government was going to make better use of the data available on spending on digital programmes. Cabinet Office said that a new data platform was introduced in March 2025 to enable departments to provide better data on … Read more
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31 Recommendation
27th Report - Government’s relatio…
Government's buying power is hindered by lack of reliable future digital procurement demand forecasts.
The Cabinet Office is responsible for maximising the buying power of the state. We therefore asked the Cabinet Office how government could negotiate volume discounts with large suppliers or cloud suppliers, or aggregated contracts, without data on the expected future … Read more
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32 Recommendation
27th Report - Government’s relatio…
Government faces limited choice and high switching costs in concentrated technology market
GCF explained that government has historically sought to exercise buying power through competition between technology suppliers. Increasingly, the technology market is being dominated by a small number of very large suppliers. We observed that moving between digital suppliers, particularly cloud … Read more
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33 Recommendation
27th Report - Government’s relatio…
Government's fragmented cloud buying approach limits potential commercial leverage and benefits
Government has made attempts to co–ordinate in order to gain benefits from its scale. GCF has signed agreements with the major cloud providers which allow them to treat the public sector as a single customer for the purposes of determining … Read more
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34 Recommendation
27th Report - Government’s relatio…
Government's static technology requirements and lack of contract agility hinder digital commercial activity
The NAO found that government will need to adopt wide–ranging changes to how it approaches digital commercial activity, which reflect the changing reality of technology markets. For example, it will need to understand its negotiation levers more fully, understand more … Read more
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Correspondence 1 letter
27 Mar 2025 To committee Letter from the Civil Service Chief Operating Officer and Permanent Secretary of the Cabinet Office relating to the follow up on the oral evidence session on Government’s relationship with digital technology suppliers, 13 March 2025
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