Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Conclusion 5
27th Report - Government’s relationship with digital technology suppliers
Published 6 Jun 2025
Addressed to HM Treasury
Public Accounts Committee Government’s relationship with digital technology suppliers All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
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 activity. But it cannot say for certain as it has no central record of this spending. Government also lacks reliable or comprehensive data on its overall pipeline of future demand for digital services and lacks the ability to evaluate this against suppliers’ appetite to provide those services. Cabinet Office considers that following the Procurement Act 2023, a new database will give government better data on spending and pipelines. However, this only supplies a platform for departments to submit data. It does not negate the need for systems and processes to be set up between the Centre and suppliers, and between the Centre and departments, to provide the forecast and pipeline data which is critically needed. Without reliable data, government cannot make informed buying decisions or fully make use of its consolidated buying power. Cabinet Office acknowledges that it needs an improvement plan to ensure it is capturing all available data on digital commercial activity in government. The Cabinet Office Permanent Secretary wrote to us after our evidence session saying that within 8 to 10 weeks the Government Chief Commercial Officer would set out to a plan and approach to upskilling his 6,000 staff in digital areas. We look forward to evaluating this. recommendation The Cabinet Office and DSIT should, by Autumn 2025, set out how it will ensure that it has the data and the capability (systems, processes, people) it needs to make more informed decisions about where and how government spends with technology suppliers. This should include data on spending and on the pipeline of supply and demand, to help the centre of government build a more strategic approach to working with technology suppliers. 6
From: Public Accounts Committee, 27th Report - Government’s relationship with digital technology suppliers (HC 640), 6 June 2025
Government response
Latest Treasury Minutes progress report to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Twenty-seventh Report of Session 2024-26
The government responded to the whole report on 4 June 2026 (deadline 6 August 2025).
Treasury minutes: Government response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Twenty-seventh report from Session 2024-26
Published 18 September 2025.
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government states that it "agrees with the Committee's recommendation" on each of the recommendations in the report, with most carrying a target implementation date of December 2025.
- On roles and responsibilities, it says the Digital Commercial Centre of Excellence (DCCoE) has been launched as a joint Cabinet Office and DSIT team and is "working to formalise the roles and responsibilities" between digital and commercial teams.
- On skills, it sets a three-phased approach for the Government Commercial Function: a first phase by September 2025, a second by March 2026, and a final phase "to be confirmed".
- On the Digital, Data and Technology Playbook, it says a team is working with GDS "to launch a publication in December 2025", bringing it up to date with current practices.
- On spending data, it says the GCF Digital & Data Team "will set out the process" to use commercial insights from data held across government, with "further detail" to be provided to the Committee in December.