Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 11
11
Accepted
Government establishes Digital Commercial Centre of Excellence to enhance digital procurement.
Recommendation
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, scaleups and [small–and medium–sized enterprises] to access government contracts.” 16 The new Digital Centre of Excellence will be staffed by experts in digital procurement. We asked the Cabinet Office how it would ensure that Departments and their commercial teams were able to get a consistently good deal that provides value to the taxpayer. It told us that it wanted the Centre of Excellence to bring together commercial digital procurement 13 Qq 6–8 14 Q 1, 2 15 Qq 1, 47 16 Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, A blueprint for modern digital government, January 2025 11 and enable departments and their commercial teams to have a stronger voice when working with suppliers. It also told us that it had “some strong ambitions to look at the whole digital landscape” and identify where it could buy better and more effectively.17 We believe this transformation is one of the most important in the whole of Government.
Government Response Summary
The government accepts the recommendation, committing to developing a Digital Commercial Strategy by December 2025. This strategy will include a focused approach to supplier and market engagement, specifically addressing Small and Medium Enterprise and Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise suppliers.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
2.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: December 2025 2.2 The development of the Digital Commercial Strategy will include an agreed approach to supplier and market engagement, with a particular focus on Small and Medium Enterprise and Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise suppliers, working in conjunction with industry representative bodies such as TechUK, alongside the Cabinet Office Crown Representatives. Further work will be undertaken to establish the position on remaining issues outlined in the recommendation.