Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 14
14
Accepted
Government urgently needs to build digital commercial skills for complex procurement and cloud services
Recommendation
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 activities such as “buying cloud brilliantly is a quite specific skill, even within the digital procurement set of skills”. GCF said that, as digital was now at the heart of almost every procurement, it needed to do more to build digital commercial skills, and that this was “absolutely” part of what the Centre of Excellence would do. It recognised that much of the more complex digital procurement was undertaken by multidisciplinary teams, so this would need a wider focus 17 Qq 1, 5 18 Qq 15, 20, 41 19 Qq 23, 27–29 20 Qq 27–29 12 than only on commercial teams.21 The Cabinet Office wrote to us after our evidence session to tell us that new systems are predominantly “cloud first” and cloud computing expenditure was likely to always trend upwards to meet the priorities of the business.22
Government Response Summary
The government accepts the recommendation, committing to a December 2025 implementation date. It details the launch of the DCCoE, establishment of a GDS-led Technical Design Authority, and the development of a strategic supplier relationship management approach, focusing on key tech providers.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
1.4 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: December 2025 1.5 The DCCoE has been launched as a joint team between the commercial and digital functions, with support from the Crown Commercial Service. To support this a Government Digital Service (DGS) led Technical Design Authority has been established to set digital strategy supported by a Digital Commercial Working Group across government. 1.6 A strategic supplier relationship management approach is being developed which leverages the skills and capabilities of the Government Commercial Function (GCF) Supplier and Markets team, Crown Commercial Service and departmental category leads from across government. The work will focus on the key strategic supplier relationships and big tech providers supporting the development of national digital infrastructure.